poor gross motor skills

[littlegreenalien]

Ds2 (will be 8 in August) needs help apparently with improving his gross motor skills.

I am clueless and this was a kindly mean't but casual comment by his teacher when we said our goodbyes on the last day of term at school.

The teacher himself was leaving so I can't e-mail him to ask and I'm assuming the headteacher will think me very odd/demanding if I e-mail him with this over the holidays. Even if I did, I couldn't reasonably expect a response until term starts again but we have the next 6 weeks stretching ahead of us in which to do something about this but I simply don't know what to do.

I really want to help ds2 as he's so far behind his older brother in many physical aspects (and it's not just the 18 months age gap) and he sometimes gets very frustrated at himself. I'm divorced and the dc's time with dh does involve swimming every week but other than that he lets them play computer games and go to the cinema or watch TV rather than kick a football about or go for a bike ride.

Does anyone have any suggestions for activities/exercises to give his gross motor skills development a bit of a boost over the summer ?

Climbing, sailing, golf, swinging on monkey bars/ropes (try a Go Ape type course or adventure playground), Geocaching and going on walks, getting creative ie.making dens and gardening, throwing and catching games, swingball ...

You could also make it a good child labour holiday for yourself . stripping wallpaper, pulling weeds, painting fences, carrying shopping. Or more fun stuff in the garden like trampolining, lying on stomachs looking for bugs, making assault courses out of whatever is lying around, wheelbarrow races etc.
If you find that your DS naturally avoids all of the hard work jobs due to lack of strength, you could always go to your GP and relate the teacher's concerns. They may refer on. In most areas you can also self refer to Occupational Therapy. Contact them and again highlight that although you had always realised that he was less physically able than his brother, it was not until this teacher made comment that you felt you should get it investigated.
How are his fine motor skills - like writing? Sometimes poor gross motor skills can affect the fine ones.

I'm afraid sailing/go ape is out of our reach financially at present.

Cimbing is a possibility, he is poor at this, arm strength and co-ordination wise, scrambling up a climbing frame takes him much longer than other kids. I don't really have much of a garden so home trampoline is not a possibility.

I work full-time (thanks to the divorce) so I am time limited and he doesn't want to spend all his time in summer holiday sports clubs as he feels indaequate compared to his peers, although the dc are attending some sports daycare type clubs over the holidays.

Thinking about it he doesn't have the boundless energy of his peers, he's just not bouncy and springy like them. Climbing ropes at the weekly fun-gym club he attends is totally beyond him. Swingball frustrates him because he wears glasses and his hand to eye co-ordination is not the best.

He does avoid extra running around the house and I've kind of let him, The dc have fetching and carrying jobs to do but he is always more reluctant compared to say his brother.

His fine motor skills seem O.K., he has nice handwriting but his project work (artwork, craftwork, drawing straight lines or circles, colouring etc) are messy even though he enjoys this and does loads of it at home and at holiday daycare schemes. He's such a contradiction as far as the fine motor skills are concerned, writing acknowledged as very good for his age but other stuff messy.

Ex-h has private healthcare and the dc are included, I will make a GP appointment to discuss what is professional guidance/help is available as he does already have swimming training each week and a fun-gym class too. I though we were doing what we could between ex-h and I.

Thanks for the replies.

Have a look at the Jo Frost extreme parenting on ITV iplayer (or wherever it is - I googled and found it) - it is saying precisely what youve said about the poor motor skills of our children in general and what parents can do.