The first obstacle courses helped prepare American soldiers for war. While the military still uses it for training, obstacle courses for kids are, naturally, far milder, but still great to build physical fitness, promote creative thinking, and boost teamwork. They entail climbing, crawling, balancing, hanging, and jumping, demanding the full use of the body, and provide an engaging workout. Below are some inspiration and ideas if you want to build an obstacle course for kids.

Spy Training Obstacle Course

This spy-themed DIY obstacle course for kids may involve deciphering letters written with secret ink, finding hidden objects, solving puzzles, or using walkie-talkies to communicate with team members. The only prerequisite is that the activities should have an “espionage” flair.

Laser Maze

Laser maze is a great indoor idea if you have a long hallway where you can string painter’s tape, crêpe paper, string, or twine across to imitate laser beams. The idea is for the kids to race each other over and under the “lasers” without touching them. You can increase the difficulty by making them move backward.

Activity Obstacle Course for Kids

How to make your own obstacle course at home?  For toddlers and young kids, you can use large stuffed animals, pillows and mattresses, chairs, and anything safe you can find. The laundry basket can turn into a makeshift basketball hoop, for instance. Home-made obstacle courses are great for crawlers who need to feed their curiosity and find an outlet for their newfound energy.

Learning Obstacle Course

With this easy obstacle course, you just need to stick notes everywhere with letters, numbers, or math problems and make the kids answer or solve the questions. The kid or team to answer the most correctly wins. Placing the notes in unexpected places adds an element of hide-and-seek, making the game more challenging.

Obstacle Course with Quick Tasks

Quick task obstacle courses are great if you need to get your children out of a lethargic slump. The gist of it is to designate small areas for individual tasks, for example, spinning around, doing five-star jumps, hula-hooping, etc. The first kid to complete all the tasks wins.

Mud Run

As the name suggests, this obstacle course gets kids dirty, so it’s best to attempt it when the weather is good. If you have a large yard, you can build an obstacle course race with hay bales, tires, nets, and wood for kids to climb over and army crawl through. Your creativity is the only limit.

Indoor Obstacle Course Ideas

The Floor is Lava is a great obstacle course for kids at home that requires minimal set-up effort. Players pretend that the floor is made of lava and have to move from one obstacle to another, i.e., furniture, cushions, mattresses, etc. If they touch the floor, they’re disqualified. You can ramp up the difficulty by insisting that players may not remain still. You can also set up obstacles to make the game more interesting too.

Backyard Obstacle Course

This classic never fails to deliver hours of fun. Set an obstacle course outside using everyday objects such as chairs, benches, buckets, ropes, and hula hoops and increase the difficulty level depending on the age of the children. If you have enough participants, you can try races and relays in teams.