We made these over break a while back. Jump roping during recess is apparently a big thing in school these days. We had a jump rope (somewhere!) but I thought it might be fun to make our own. I was happy about making something that is fairly simple to make and can be used for exercise! We made two types but our favorite kind is the one made out of yarn.
We used 8 strands of yarn and put some fun yarns in the mix to make it flashy. To make your own:
Double the amount of yarn needed to make a kid-size appropriate jump rope.
Tie one side together and have someone hold it or attach it to something like a chair.
Twist the strands together. I held one side and my daughter held the other so we each twisted the strands in opposite directions. Keep twisting until the twists are tight and sort of want to double over onto each other.
Fold the twisted yarns over in the center (my son was happy to help for this part, he pulled on the center of the rope and held it while we were placing our two ends together.)
Let go of the rope and watch it twist together, help it along if necessary. You want it to be as twisted as possible, I think to reduce friction as its turning.
This was a big hit with both kids. My almost 7 year old loved it because she really really wanted to start jumping in school. My almost three year old loved choosing variations on his favorite color, helping to assemble it. I can’t say he’s up to jumping with it yet, but we’ve thought of some other games to play.
I wanted to make a longer jump rope so that my daughter’s class could do group jump rope games. I had been looking for laundry line rope and hadn’t been able to find it here (here they use a rope thats wire covered in plastic.) However, I asked my spouse if he could find some and he came back with…plastic covered wire laundry line. So we decided to try it out. We attached yarn to either end for decoration. This one has not seen much use though because its a bit light and I’m not convinced that the handles are all that comfortable.
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