Most Creative uses for Home Equipment, lol

[flippin out]

Ok, So seeing this post by pt coach

We have a floor beam and a cheese mat. They are great for making forts...haven't seen them used much for gymnastics.

in a another thread gave me quite a laugh. I thought it would be funny to see what else our creative kids have come up with.

So obviously pt coach is the first post on creativity

For me. I bought a trampoline many years ago as a fun thing for my older kids to play on. In the last several years, the only thing time that it gets used is when the kids have friends over.....OR the more creative uses are .....(1) To hide Under during a good game of Night Time Hide & Seek, or (2) to build a fort/house out of by making Snow Fort around the base of it, lol. (3) a friend's kids use theirs for Suntanning, lol Apparently is a great tanning bed, lmao! This one is the best I've heard for trampolines, heehee

------Anyone else find that while they bought 'gym' stuff, it's now found many other- more creative- uses?

 

[MdGymMom01]

Hahahaha!! Love this thread!!! My kids took the floor beam and put it over another rounded mat (I think it was the BHS trainer that I bought years before that I ended up donating to the gym) and made a See-Saw!!!! They also use the mat as a fort.

 

[Gymmonkeymomma]

In addition to the beam that lives under the couch, we have a panel mat (4x8 ft) - oldest DD used that for forward rolls (when we got it she was 4). She is now 14. For the past 8-10 years, it has served as a fort and also as a mattress for sleepovers.

 

[AlwaysCuriousMom]

My DDs use the beam to play manicure/pedicure. LOL.

 

[gymjourneymom]

We used the cheese mat & panel mat to block staircases when we were training our puppy! It actually worked well, except the corners of the mats are a bit chewed up now.

DD's floor beam is in my bedroom. I use it daily to do foot stretches for my chronic plantar fasciitis. I've gotten more use out of the beam then she ever did, LOL!

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Our beam now resides outside in the back yard but when it was in the house it was mostly used as a tripping device! LOL !!!

Oh and I also have a treadmill that is a great clothing storage unit!!

 

[gymnut1]

Our beam is used by everyone to sit and put their shoes on.

The junior kip bar makes a great clothes rail for leos! Especially when getting a batch ready to sell on ebay!

 

[3stars]

When my son had a pirate themed birthday party this summer, we carried the beam outside and it became "the plank". The boys had sword fights on it. My daughter was not amused.

 

[bogwoppit]

Our beam now resides outside in the back yard but when it was in the house it was mostly used as a tripping device! LOL !!!

That was why I got rid of ours, it lived in the basement and the family fell over it more times than it was ever used for practice.

The trampoline is a great stage for plays, also draping sheets over the net makes a great fort. It is not good when it snows however.

In the gym hc would let the girls take all the blocks and build forts, they could spend hours playing in them after gym, even the big girls.

 

[coachmolly]

I had a panel mat on the basement floor and for a while when I was around 10 it was the only place I would sleep at night (I had severe anxiety issues, so don't ask for the rationale haha). We also had a full sized beam that my dad got out of the farmer's classifieds and covered- first with a carpet and then with a really nice beam-like covering. It was mostly used for gymnastics-related games and pretend play, though. It was out in the barn with all of the hay bales, so there were tons of options when creating stories to play out.

 

[gymnastbeth]

My younger cousin has a floor beam. I was babysitting her the other day, she now uses it as a conveyer belt when playing "grocery store". She lines up all of her plastic food on it, before "paying" and putting the food in bags. Healthy imagination!

 

[Mom2Brats]

I can't think of anything too original, but I made a PVC parallette bar for Allison and Evelyn uses it as her own personal stool all the time. I suppose it's good for balance.

 

[flippin out]

Wow, we have a creative Lot of kids! I'm loving this thread. Pirate's planks, mani-pedi's, clothes rails, puppy trainers, and see-saws! Bahahaha! Love it

 

[ejgymmom]

Anna has recently been using her beam as an airplane to fly her dolls and stuffed animals around. She's a strange one, that kid. Other than that it's not getting much use.

 

[Kiwi]

We have bars in the backyard, kind of like a jungle gym. Gym DD occasionally practises something gymnastic on them such as circle overs (don't worry she isn't doing giants or anything advanced on home bars). She also likes to make up her own routines and perform them, pretending she is in a competition - the 'routines' usually involve a lot of prancing around and posing rather than actual gymnastic skills. When her friends come over she likes to put blankets over the top of the bars to make a 'hut' for her and her friends to play in. They put a blanket underneath and take lots of toys out into the hut to play with.

 

[my4buffaloes]

We have some mats that we got when our old gym moved and we built a slide in our basement and put the mats on the slide to cushion it. When we let our rabbit out we use the mats the block parts of the basement off so we can catch her.

We have a set of rings that my dd likes to lower almost to the floor and sit in with one leg through each hole and swing on. I figure as long as the stuff gets used then it doesn't matter what it is used for.

 

[MdGymMom01]

Planking!!!!!!

This is what our equipment is used for now

 

[d0nut_l0ver]

I got a panel mat and a beam for Christmas last year. At first, I used it a lot for gymnastics. Now I use the beam for pole vaulting over the mat. xD

 

[AGM78910]

As I mentioned in my other post, our $150 beam became a cat scratching post. The rectangular competition trampoline is now a tanning bed in the daytime, and at night a good place to sleep on and stargaze, (5 kids were laying on it watching the recent total eclipse of the moon). This trampoline is also a dog training device to teach agility dogs to jump on and off. The panel mat is used to block the stairs to keep the dogs downstairs, it also lays flat for our old dog to sleep on.

 

[Deanna]

Kadee is pretty good at using both her beam (just 8ft long and about a foot off the floor), and her bar (which is a odd size, the bar is 5 ft off the floor, and can be adjusted more and about 6 ft across). My nephew works for an equipment company and makes equipment and sets up meets...so, he has made them for her out of spare or extra parts. She uses them..but she is still pretty young. So, it hasn't lost its appeal yet.
My son on the other hand, likes to line up his little recliner chair and use it at a spring board to get on the bar. He also likes to use the beam as a road for his cars. Which is well and good, until I saw today that he had drawn "a divider line" down the middle of the beam, so his cars would know what side to drive on. Im not sure where he got the pen to draw these lines, and Im not sure where the pen went. When asked..he says "I dunno". UGH KIDS! lol