Monkey bars... kid can't do them but would like to?

[Mabelen]

My 6 yo dd really wants to be able to do monkey bars. So far she can only do 1 or 2 at a time (not very gracefully) before she has to let go. I know that I would need to help her build some upper body strength and core muscles. A lot of the kids in our area are little monkeys and she feels left out at the playground because she can't keep up.

 

She is doing swimming twice a week and tumbling/trampoline once a week.

Does anybody have a good set of exercises/games that I can do with her to achieve her goal? Any ideas?

 

Thank you so much!

[snickelfritz]

I would think the swimming would be good for working the muscles, so maybe it's more the coordination?

 

I think the biggest help will be lots of time on climbing play structures. Ones that have rock walls, monkey bars, or other climbing nets would be good.

 

Playing "wheelbarrow" would work those arms too. Where someone holds her feet and she walks on her arms.

 

Push-ups?

 

Are most of the neighborhood kids older? My dd's both do gymnastics. Older dd was doing monkey bars WELL before other kids her age.....maybe 5? That's based just on observing at the playground, not saying that she was incredibly talented or early. Not sure when kids are SUPPOSED to be able to do them. Even this past summer, kids her age (7) have a hard time going very far.

[Mabelen]

I would think the swimming would be good for working the muscles, so maybe it's more the coordination?

 

I think the biggest help will be lots of time on climbing play structures. Ones that have rock walls, monkey bars, or other climbing nets would be good.

 

Playing "wheelbarrow" would work those arms too. Where someone holds her feet and she walks on her arms.

 

Push-ups?

 

Are most of the neighborhood kids older? My dd's both do gymnastics. Older dd was doing monkey bars WELL before other kids her age.....maybe 5? That's based just on observing at the playground, not saying that she was incredibly talented or early. Not sure when kids are SUPPOSED to be able to do them. Even this past summer, kids her age (7) have a hard time going very far.

 

 

In our area most of the kids her age can do the monkey bars. Of course there are also a couple that can't but most seem to be able to. Even a lot of the kids younger than her seem to manage it! I might need to get her to other playgrounds out of our neighborhood to practise so she doesn't feel so self consciuous doing it in front of her friends.

 

Thank you for all the suggestions!

[LostSurprise]

When my 5 year old wanted to do that we had a talk about practice and how practicing every day or a few times a week equals stronger arms.

 

Every time we went to the park he did the hand-over-hand bars...at least 2-3 times each visit (sometimes more). By the end of the summer he could do them easily. By the next year he could do any set of bars.

 

I made a commitment to get him out to a playground at least 3x a week (although sometimes we got busy). He committed to practice. That's what it took.

[Jenn in Mo]

Practice! My 7 year old has had a hard time with them, only doing one or two at a time before collapsing...while the other kids passed her by. I helped her some by putting my hands under her feet and letting her put pressure on my hands to relieve some of her weight. Mostly, she just tried once or twice each time we came and fell off every time.

 

A couple days ago, she hopped up there to try again and....SHE DID IT! She went all the way across!!!!! We jumped up and applauded. It seemed to come out of nowhere. I'd never seen her do more than two in a row before and she managed around 10!

 

Seeing so many kids do it motivated her to try harder. If it weren't for that, she'd have given up trying, just assuming it was too hard for anyone to do.

[HLDoll]

My very petite 5 year old daughter can whiz across them, but my almost-7 year old son can't do more than 2 or 3 bars. I think it has to do with how much the child wants to do it and how hard they're willing to work. My daughter saw another very small girl do them one day and she tried over and over and over again (got huge blisters on her hands) until she made it across that afternoon. And the bars were too high for her, so it meant I was standing there lifting her up for every attempt. My son tried once, fell off after moving one bar, and will only occasionally give it an attempt (even though we have a set in the backyard that he could practice on privately); consequently, he can't do it yet. I wouldn't worry too much about it. Give her opportunities to practice, encourage her and she'll get there.

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

My dd wants to do the monkey bars so bad too. I let her practice by lifting her up to the bar and then letting her hang for as long as possible. She can hang for 2 minutes!! I also let her practice by holding her waist while she navigates the bars.

 

I think the wheelbarrow exercise was a great idea!

[dirty ethel rackham]

For my kids, I would just support their body weight as much as they needed until they developed the strength to to it. For one of my kids, it took a couple weeks. For another, it took all summer. They were all good swimmers.

[plansrme]

I am not so sure it is a strength thing as much as a coordination thing--letting go and swinging at the right times. I could be wrong about that, but I watched my kids at it when they were little(er), and it seemed like the more aggressive the child was on the swinging component, the faster s/he mastered the monkey bars.

 

It never occurred to me to practice MBs, but they are all perfectly competent on them now.

 

Terri

[choirfarm]

My dh treats a lot of kids with monkey bar fractures (sorry I can't remember the type of fracture it is). They drop to the ground and break their wrist, maybe.. All I know is he told the boys to be really careful when they went to ps.

 

Christine

[Mabelen]

Thank you so much for all your replies. It looks as if the consensus is to practice more at the bars. She did practice quite a bit last summer, but I still didn't see a lot of progress, which is why I was thinking we might need to do some "remedial" work ;).

 

For hand work she usually needs to have two hands at a bar at a time... when she tries to do the alternating motion she immediately collapses. What I have been doing when she is practicing is to hold her at hip height, giving her some support but letting her bear most of her own weight, while trying not to obstruct the swinging motion...

 

We will keep at it and hopefully get there soon, she is getting frustrated and discouraged!

[ChristusG]

My DD 6 cannot do monkey bars. I think it's a coordination thing too. She also cannot ride a 2 wheeler or pump the swings very well.

[gingersmom]

My dh treats a lot of kids with monkey bar fractures (sorry I can't remember the type of fracture it is). They drop to the ground and break their wrist, maybe.. All I know is he told the boys to be really careful when they went to ps.

 

Christine

 

My daughter broke her elbow on the monkey bars. The hospital said they get several kids a week with broken bones from the monkey bars. The surgeon thought they should be removed from playgrounds.

[EJCMom]

I'm thinking that monkey bar success has more to do with grip strength than upper body strength. I would have your dd do things that would improve her grip -- like playing with almost dried out playdoh -- things like that.

[Gwenhwyfar]

My daughter broke her elbow on the monkey bars. The hospital said they get several kids a week with broken bones from the monkey bars. The surgeon thought they should be removed from playgrounds.

 

when they took the old broken rusted monkey bars out of our playground when i was a kid (the WERE unsafe due to deterioration) we just climbed the huge swing poles and stuff instead. :laugh:

 

it seems every time you turn around, someone wants to 'get rid' of something... how many of you have kids that have ever gotten to ride on a merrygoround?

 

oh cool. i was about to link a pic of an old merrygoround and came across this fun pic-filled trip down memory lane LOL

 

Playground Fun :D

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

My dh treats a lot of kids with monkey bar fractures (sorry I can't remember the type of fracture it is). They drop to the ground and break their wrist, maybe.. All I know is he told the boys to be really careful when they went to ps.

 

Christine

 

 

I did this at 8, I fell off the monkey bars and broke both of my arms. I broke the radius right above the wrist on both arms.

[Gwenhwyfar]

hey - i forgot, i did get injured on the monkey bars!

 

well, under them. a wasp flew into my left sleeve and stung me in my armpit. that counts, right? :D

 

(count or not, it bloody well hurt! i ran home screaming, much to the amusement of my brother & his buddies.)

[Joker]

My dds can't do the monkey bars and its all my fault. I fear them. I fell off the monkey bars when I was 9 and was knocked out cold! I wasn't out long but when I opened my eyes everyone on the playground was staring at me and my mom had to pick me up and take me to the hospital. It was horrible!

[Karen in CO]

Both of my girls learned monkey bars. We start with assistance - I hold their legs and walk under the bars as they go. Gradually they take over more on their own until one day they can do it. We also have one of the chin-up bars across my bedroom closet - they both hang from that and try to do pull ups. Oh and the older does push-up in fencing, but she could monkeybar before she started that.

[2squared]

it seems every time you turn around, someone wants to 'get rid' of something... how many of you have kids that have ever gotten to ride on a merrygoround?

 

My MIL just scored us a free merry-go-round from a local school. It's unsafe for them, so now it's going to be in our yard.

[katilac]

oh cool. i was about to link a pic of an old merrygoround and came across this fun pic-filled trip down memory lane LOL

 

Playground Fun :D

 

in my day if somebody didn't get a concussion, bloody lip or nose you were not playing hard enough.

 

Epic link!

[Catherine]

It's about strength, but also about coordination-swinging the body in a rhythmic way to reach to and grasp the next bar when the center of gravity will help you to hold onto it.

[Mabelen]

I knew one 5 yo girl who broke her arm by falling from the monkey bars at school. The unusual thing is that no one suspected anything for a couple of days... The only hint that something was amiss was that she suddenly refused to write/draw or even hold a pencil. After some prodding her mom decided to take her to the dr and was completely shocked when the x rays showed a fracture! So was I, as this little girl was in my Spanish Kindy class and she had been her usual happy participating self!

 

Obviously, I would not like my dd to end up with a fracture but it is a risk I feel I have to asume like so many others in life and hope for the best.

 

Yesterday we went to a different park outside our neighborhood. It was a very fun place with several play and climbing areas but no monkey bars!

[Mabelen]

My DD 6 cannot do monkey bars. I think it's a coordination thing too. She also cannot ride a 2 wheeler or pump the swings very well.

 

I think you must be right. My dd cannot pump the swing very well. Some other kids are flying high and she is just swinging along daintily (even though she would really like to get much higher). We are working at learning to ride a 2 wheeler, right now she is practicing coasting on a bike without pedals. The thing is, she is a very good scooter rider and a pretty good swimmer, where you need quite a bit of coordination, she is also decent at the tumbling/trampoline class!

 

So how do we help our kids with coordination?

[JennyD]

Very interesting thread. My 5yo also can't do the monkey bars but it seems like many of his little friends, especially the girls, have been doing them for ages. It makes sense that it is about coordination, though.