Balance Beam Coin Carry
Your child walks a taped line heel to toe carrying a small stack of coins on a saucer, and discovers that the only way across is slowly.
- Age
- 4 to 7, best at 5
- Setup
- 2 min
- Play
- 5 to 10 min
- Materials
- Household only
- Mess
- None
- You
- Stay nearby
Activity KG-A036
What you need
A line, and something that will fall over. Everything on this page is a variation on those two things.
- Masking tape or painter's tapeabout 3 m Or: string taped down at both ends. Or a plank laid flat. Or a kerb, or a line of paving slabs outdoors. Masking tape lifts off wood and tile without marking. Three metres is long enough that the walk has a middle, which is where the balancing actually happens, and short enough to do again straight away.
- Coinsx5 to 8 Or: buttons, washers, draughts pieces, or 2 cm squares cut from a cereal box. They have to stack, and they have to slide off easily. A load that never falls gives nothing back. Five coins on a smooth saucer topple at exactly the speed that makes a five year old slow down.
- A saucer or small platex1 Or: a jar lid. Or a flat open hand, which is harder. A slight rim holds the stack on the plate and still lets it go over. A deep bowl hides the wobble, and then there is nothing to correct.
- Bare feet, or thin soft shoes Feet grip the line and feel its edge. Socks on a wooden floor turn this into a sliding game, which is a different and much more frustrating activity.
How to set it up
- Press a straight three metre line of tape onto the floor, with a clear metre at each end.1 min
- Stack five coins in the middle of the saucer and set it on a chair at the start of the line.20 sec
- Walk the line heel to toe carrying the saucer, slowly, and let the stack wobble where she can see it.30 sec
- Give her the saucer at the start of the line, then step off it and go to the far end.10 sec
What to say and what to do
Say
Heel against toe, all the way along.
If they fall, pick them up where they landed and carry on from there.
- Do not count the drops out loud. Counting turns a walk into a test, and the walk is already interesting enough.
Do
- Stand at the far end of the line rather than beside her. A child walking a line looks at where she is going, and having somewhere to arrive is what keeps the head up.
- Let her choose how many coins. Eight coins and a slow walk is a different game from three and a quick one, and both are worth having.
- Take it outside once it stops being hard. A kerb, a line of slabs or a low garden wall adds real consequence without adding height.
Let be
- A walk that looks nothing like heel to toe. Getting the length of the line with the coins still standing is the whole job at five; the footwork tidies itself over a few sittings.
- Arms straight out, tongue out, whole body committed. That is what balance under a load looks like at this age.
- Running back to the start rather than turning round on the line. Turning on a 2 cm line is a much later skill and there is no hurry about it.
What it looks like when it is working
- The steps get shorter and slower in the middle of the line without being asked.
- She looks at the end of the line rather than down at the saucer.
- The free arm starts counterbalancing on its own.
- He sets himself a harder version: more coins, walking backwards, or a full cup instead.
What to expect at each age
At four
Walks beside the line as much as on it, and holds the saucer in both hands against the chest. The stack goes over about every second walk.
Heel to toe with no gap between the feet comes later. At four the line is a direction to follow rather than a surface to stay on.
Lasts 3 to 6 minutes
At five
Keeps both feet on the tape most of the way, carries the saucer in one hand, and slows down in the middle where the wobble lives. Gets across with the stack intact perhaps one walk in three.
Carrying while turning, and carrying while talking to you, arrive later. For now the walk takes everything he has.
Lasts 5 to 10 minutes
At six and seven
Heel to toe end to end, turns on the line, and starts inventing rules: backwards, two steps with the eyes shut, a cup of water instead of coins.
This is where the plank, the kerb and the low wall become the interesting versions and the tape line becomes the warm-up.
Lasts 10 to 15 minutes, usually under a rule she made
When it goes sideways
Every one of these is the line telling you it is pitched at the wrong level, and each is one change away from right.
The coins go over within two steps, every time
The load is above the balance. Walking and carrying are competing, and the carrying is losing.
Drop to two coins, or hold the saucer in both hands. Put the coins back one at a time over the next few crossings, and let the stack grow as the walk steadies.
He walks it perfectly and is bored
The line has stopped constraining anything. A flat 2 cm strip is no longer a limit once a child can place his feet.
Take it outside onto a kerb or a row of paving slabs, or lay a plank flat on the floor. The consequence of stepping off is what makes staying on worth doing.
She will not try again after dropping them
The drop is reading as a failure, which usually means it has been counted, timed or watched too closely somewhere.
Change the rule so there is nowhere to fail: coins that fall get picked up, and the walk carries on from that spot. Every walk then finishes, and the only question is how many are still on the saucer.
Both children want the line at once
Two children and one line is a queue, and queuing is the least interesting part of this.
Lay a second line parallel, a metre away. Two lines side by side turn waiting into racing, and racing slowly is much harder than racing fast.
Making it harder
Four rungs on the same three metres of tape, until the last one, which wants a plank or a kerb.
The line, empty hands
- Ready when
- This is the starting point.
- What changes
- The tape line and nothing to carry.
- What is new
- Putting a foot where the eyes are looking.
One coin on a saucer
- Ready when
- She stays on the line for most of its length.
- What changes
- A saucer in both hands with a single coin on it.
- What is new
- Walking while the hands are busy with something else.
A stack of five, one hand
- Ready when
- He crosses with one coin without watching it.
- What changes
- Five coins stacked, the saucer in one hand, the other arm free.
- What is new
- A load that reports back. The stack leans before it falls, which is a warning arriving in time to be used.
A plank, a kerb, or a turn
- Ready when
- She crosses with the stack intact most times.
- What changes
- A plank laid flat, a kerb outdoors, or the same line with a turn at the far end and a walk back.
- What is new
- A narrow surface with a real edge, which hands the job from the eyes to the ankles.
Finish on a crossing that worked rather than on the hardest one attempted. Leave the tape down afterwards; a line on the floor gets walked twenty times a day by whoever is passing.
How to keep it safe
This one lives on the floor, which takes most of it out.
- Keep the line flat on the floor. A beam propped on books slides out from under a foot, and the floor version works the same ankles.
- Bare feet or thin soft shoes, on wood, tile or carpet.
- Clear a metre either side of the line, particularly of table corners and the edge of a hearth.
- Coins are a mouthing size, so count them out and count them back if there is a toddler in the room.
Why this helps
From the guide The claims here follow our guide on how patience actually develops.
Balance is not one skill. Standing still on two feet is a static job. Walking a line while carrying something is a moving one, which means the ankles and hips are making dozens of small corrections a second while the eyes are busy looking ahead and the hands are busy holding a plate level. The coins are what makes those corrections visible: a stack that leans is the body's wobble drawn large enough to see from across the room.
The second half of it is deliberate slowness. Most of what a five year old does with his body is fast. This is one of the few things in the house that cannot be rushed and that says so immediately, without an adult having to. The coins go over, the next walk is slower, and nobody had to use the word careful.
Skill practised: moving balance with the hands under load
This is not a balance test with a score attached. A five year old carries the coins because a stack still standing at the far end is a small triumph.
One a week, at your child's age
We publish one new activity a week at each age, in exactly this format. The slow middle of the walk is the part worth watching, and it reads far better in video than in a sentence about ankles.
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Questions parents ask
What if we have no masking tape?
A length of string taped or weighted at both ends does it, and so does a row of books laid end to end, a folded towel, or paving slabs outdoors. The line only has to be visible and narrow. It does not have to be raised, and at this age a raised one is not better.
Should the beam be off the floor?
Not at five. A flat line works the same ankles and lets a child look where she is going instead of down at a drop. A plank laid flat is the natural next step once the tape is easy, and height can wait for six or seven.
He rushes and drops everything. Do I tell him to slow down?
Let the coins say it. Add one at a time until the stack falls on a fast walk and survives a slow one, and the material is then making the point an adult would otherwise have to make. Most children find the right speed themselves inside three or four crossings.
How long should a sitting be?
Five to ten minutes at five, which is usually six or eight crossings. The concentration this takes is heavier than it looks. Leaving the tape down and getting another three walks after dinner works better than pushing one session to twenty minutes.