Balancing Rope

Rope is such a brilliant resource to take out and about with us during Forest school. It has a versatile use and can be adapted and used for many things such as den building, making fishing lines, creating a rope swing and balancing challenges to name a few.

Here we have created a physical challenge for the children tying rope between two trees creating a bridge type structure. As you can see the children love it! It is brilliant for the confidence, coordination and physical strength firing up their muscles in the bodies to be able to pull themselves up and balance to walk along the rope. 

We have used a timber hitch knot to attach the ropes securely to the trees or you can purchase slacklines specifically for this type of experience that attache around posts or trees securely.

Top tips...

• Practice makes perfect, practice knots such as a timber hitch to get use to the technique.
• Use a good string rope, climbing rope or slacklines are great.
• Carry out your own risk assessments
• Have the rope low off the ground so if the children slip they only have a short landing to the ground, about 1 foot from the ground. ensure that the second rope that they hold onto is at a suitable height for the children you're working with.

*Always ensure that the rope has no loose ends or 'slack'  and risk assess  before use.