Walking the Balance Line
Your child walks the length of a strip of tape stuck to the floor, slowly, and then turns round and walks back.
- Age
- 2 to 4, best at 2
- Setup
- 2 min
- Play
- Under 5 min
- Materials
- Household only
- Mess
- None
- You
- Stay nearby
Activity KG-A009
What you need
A strip of tape and a clear stretch of floor. The only choice that changes anything is which tape, because the wrong sort either lifts within the hour or turns the line into something slippery.
- Masking or painter's tape, 25 mm wideabout 3 m Or: washi tape. Or a length of ribbon or cord taped down at both ends. Or chalk, outside. Twenty-five millimetres is wide enough for a two year old to aim a whole foot at and narrow enough to still be a line. Low-tack tape lifts off wood and laminate cleanly. Parcel tape is slippery underfoot and leaves a mark behind.
- A clear stretch of floor, about 3 m Or: a hallway, which is the best spot in most homes. Or a patio, with chalk. Three metres is roughly twelve toddler steps, long enough to settle into and short enough to finish. Wood and short carpet both work. A rug that slides does not, and a rug is the usual reason a line goes wrong.
- Two things to mark the endsx2 Or: a pair of shoes. Or two cushions, or a teddy at each end. A line with something at each end is a journey. A line with open ends is a strip of tape. The marker is what turns walking it into arriving, and it is the whole reason a two year old turns round and comes back.
- Bare feet, or socks with grips Plain socks slide on laminate and the feet stop trusting the floor within a couple of goes. Bare feet grip, and they also feel the edge of the tape underfoot, which is half of how a two year old follows a line at all.
- Something to carry, for later Or: a beanbag. Or a small soft toy, or a teaspoon with a cork sitting in it. A carried object is what slows the feet down. Asking for slow almost never does. Keep this out of sight for the first week and bring it in once the walking itself is steady.
How to set it up
- Run a damp cloth down the stretch of floor and let it dry, so the tape actually holds.30 sec
- Press down about three metres of tape in a single straight run, smoothing both edges with your thumb.1 min
- Set something at both ends so the line has somewhere to arrive.15 sec
- Walk the line slowly with your arms out, say nothing, and then walk it again.30 sec
What to say and what to do
Say
Slow feet.
All the way to the shoe, and back.
- Mostly, walk it yourself. A two year old joins a line that is already being walked far more readily than one she is invited onto.
Do
- Walk it first, and keep walking it. This is the rare activity where the demonstration is the entire instruction, and it works by repetition rather than by being delivered once.
- Offer a finger rather than taking a hand. A held hand does the balancing for her; an offered finger lets her decide how much of it she is using.
- Leave the tape down for a week or two. Most of the walking happens in passing, on the way to something else, and that is the version that adds up.
Let be
- Feet on and off the line. At two the tape is a suggestion, and following it half the length is following it.
- Running it. A run down the line is still the line, and the slow version turns up once there is something to carry.
- Walking it backwards, sideways, or on knees. Every one of those is a harder balance problem than the one we set out.
What it looks like when it is working
- The arms come out sideways without anybody suggesting it.
- She slows down near the end instead of stepping off it.
- He turns round at the marker and starts back without being asked.
- The line gets walked in passing, carrying something else, on the way across the room.
What to expect at each age
At two
Walks along the line with feet landing on and off it, arms out, eyes down on her own feet. Turns at the end if there is something there to turn at.
Heel placed against toe usually turns up nearer three and a half or four, once the ankles are making smaller corrections. At two the job is walking a narrow path at all, with the feet still landing side by side.
Lasts 2 to 4 minutes
At three
Keeps both feet on the tape for most of the length, and can carry a beanbag on a flat palm while doing it. Starts asking for the line to be put back down.
Heel to toe without wobbling, and walking with a cup that has water in it, arrive across the following year.
Lasts 5 to 8 minutes
At four
Walks heel to toe along the whole length, slowly, and can carry a small bell without ringing it. Asks for curves, corners and a longer route.
This is where a single straight line has given what it has, and a taped track with turns, stops and a spin is the natural next thing.
Lasts 10 minutes or more
When it goes sideways
All four of these are the line telling you something about its level, and none of them is about how the walking is going.
She steps off after two steps
At two a strip of tape reads as decoration until somebody treats it as a path.
Walk it yourself, slowly, twice, without a word. Toddlers copy a walking adult far more reliably than they follow a pointed finger.
He runs down it every time
A long straight line reads as a track to a body that has recently got good at running, and that is a fair reading of it.
Give him something to carry flat on one palm. A beanbag slows the feet by itself, which no amount of asking manages.
The tape keeps lifting at the ends
Dust, or carpet pile, neither of which tape holds to for long.
Wipe the floor and press the ends down hard, or switch to a length of ribbon taped down only at the two ends. Outside, chalk on a patio solves it completely.
She walked it twice and wandered off
Two lengths at two is a genuine amount of balance work, and the interest ends where the effort does.
Leave it down. The line gets walked ten more times over the week in passing, which is where this one actually does its work.
Making it harder
Four rungs on one strip of tape. The line itself never changes. What the feet are doing on it does.
Walk it, any way at all
- Ready when
- This is where it starts.
- What changes
- One straight line, a marker at each end, bare feet.
- What is new
- Aiming the feet at a narrow path instead of at the whole floor.
Slowly, and back again
- Ready when
- She stays roughly on the line to the far end.
- What changes
- Nothing new on the floor. Walk it beside her, deliberately slowly, and turn at the marker together.
- What is new
- Choosing slow, which is the first piece of self-regulation most two year olds get offered.
Carrying something
- Ready when
- He walks the length stepping off only once or twice.
- What changes
- A beanbag on a flat palm, then a teaspoon with a cork in it, then a small jug with a finger of water in the bottom.
- What is new
- Balance held while the hands have a job of their own and the eyes are on the carried thing rather than the feet.
Heel to toe, and silent
- Ready when
- She can carry a full spoon the whole length without spilling.
- What changes
- Each heel placed against the toe of the other foot, and a small bell held in one hand that is not to ring.
- What is new
- A much narrower base to balance on, plus a reason to move quietly, which is where the line becomes something a four year old chooses on purpose.
End it at the marker rather than at the wobble. A line finished on purpose, with a turn and a walk back, is what gets asked for again tomorrow. Peel the tape up when it has gone a few days unused, rather than the same evening it goes down.
How to keep it safe
Nothing sharp here, so it comes down to what the line runs past.
- Lay the line a metre clear of table corners, the fireplace and the top of the stairs. A wobbling two year old goes sideways more often than forwards.
- Bare feet or grip socks on wood and laminate, so nothing slides.
- Keep the tape off rugs that shift. Tape on a rug moves with the rug, which is the one way this activity produces a fall.
- Stay in the room, and offer a finger rather than a hand, so the balancing stays hers.
Why this helps
From the guide The claims here follow our guide on how patience actually develops.
Walking a line narrows the ground the feet are allowed to land on, and everything above has to make up the difference: the trunk leans, the arms come out, the ankles correct constantly. That is balance being practised on purpose rather than by accident, and a two year old who has only been walking for a year has a great deal of correcting still to learn.
The quieter half is speed. A two year old has almost no reason to move slowly and very few chances to choose it. A line supplies a reason that does not come from an adult: go fast and you are off it. That is why the carried beanbag matters more than it looks, because it makes slow the child's own idea, and that is where self-regulation starts.
Skill practised: balance narrowed to a line, walked at a chosen speed
A taped line is a game of going slowly, not gymnastics. A two year old walks it because arriving at the shoe on the end is satisfying.
Where a set helps
A strip of tape is the whole activity and it works for a long time. Most children get a year out of one line on the floor, and nothing here needs buying. The Balance Beam Set matters later, around four, when the line wants to come off the floor: a beam is the same slow walk with a real consequence for stepping off, and that consequence is what keeps the walking careful once tape has stopped being interesting. Until then, tape does the job better because it can be three metres long and live in the hallway all week.
One a week, at your child's age
We publish one new activity a week at each age, in exactly this format. A two year old walking a taped line looks like nothing written down and reads immediately in ten seconds of video.
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Questions parents ask
Should my two year old be able to walk heel to toe?
Most cannot yet, and the line works perfectly well without it. Heel against toe usually arrives between three and a half and four, once the ankles are making smaller corrections. At two the activity is walking a narrow path with the feet landing side by side, stepping off, and getting back on, and that is the version worth doing for a year.
How is this different from the taped balance track?
The track is a longer route with curves, corners, a spot to stop on and often a spin at the end, and it suits four and up. This is one straight line walked slowly from end to end. Same tape, different demand: the track asks a child to hold a sequence in mind, and the line asks only for balance and a chosen speed.
How long should the line be?
About three metres, which is roughly twelve toddler steps. Longer adds nothing at two and mostly makes the far end feel far away. A hallway is usually the best place in the house, because the walls do some of the steering and there is nothing to walk into.
Does it work on carpet?
Yes on short carpet, though tape holds much better on wood or laminate. On a thick pile, tape a length of ribbon or a skipping rope down at both ends instead. The raised edge is easier for bare feet to feel, and it survives being walked on all week.