3.75. She's an all around athletic/coordinated kid now at 5 but no sort of prodigy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kid had an orthopedic surgery at Children's every single person there (from his surgeon to the wonderful nurses) said that the most common cause of a lot of fractures they see is.. ta-da... monkey bars!
Ever since I'm not too keen of the whole monkey bar business. Just saying

Interesting. I know a kid who broke his wrist falling off of them. Luckily, the ones my kid uses are at his preschool and really close to the ground!

At our elementary school the kids can't use the monkey bars at recess until 1st grade.

My daughter has broken both arms on the monkey bars -- separate times. we're not too keen on monkey bars either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When my kid had an orthopedic surgery at Children's every single person there (from his surgeon to the wonderful nurses) said that the most common cause of a lot of fractures they see is.. ta-da... monkey bars!
Ever since I'm not too keen of the whole monkey bar business. Just saying

Interesting. I know a kid who broke his wrist falling off of them. Luckily, the ones my kid uses are at his preschool and really close to the ground!

At our elementary school the kids can't use the monkey bars at recess until 1st grade.

Wow! Neither my 5 year-old nor my just turned 7 year-old can do the monkey bars.

Mine could reach them to do it when she was 3-4 but only really mastered them around 1st-2nd grade when it became her recess obsession.

Anonymous wrote:When my kid had an orthopedic surgery at Children's every single person there (from his surgeon to the wonderful nurses) said that the most common cause of a lot of fractures they see is.. ta-da... monkey bars!
Ever since I'm not too keen of the whole monkey bar business. Just saying

Interesting. I know a kid who broke his wrist falling off of them. Luckily, the ones my kid uses are at his preschool and really close to the ground!

2-3 y.o. She does gymnastics now.

When my kid had an orthopedic surgery at Children's every single person there (from his surgeon to the wonderful nurses) said that the most common cause of a lot of fractures they see is.. ta-da... monkey bars!
Ever since I'm not too keen of the whole monkey bar business. Just saying

No advice but a concerned parent on a listserv I'm on posted a request for a brachiation consultant for her kid who hadn't mastered monkey bars. I'll never forget that one.

Sometime during the PK4 year, so between 4-5.

DD practiced a ton when she was 3. I think she was a really late 3/early 4 when she could make it all the way across. She still has crazy upper body strength.

DS was a good 6 -- he wasn't very interested in it until DD spent her time on it. And the youngest was 4.

My DD is 4 and a couple months. Oh my gosh, she would love to do the monkey bars. She is able to hang and swing her whole body. She just can't cross yet.

I don't put my kids on equipment. I tell them they can only use what they can get on themselves. My kids' preschool didn't have one of these, and he didn't figure out how to reach the bars on the elementary school one until 5. He then spent a period of time using every minute of recess time to master it, and had it within a few weeks.

I also worked at a preschool that did have it, sized for preschool, and we saw some 4's and a very rare 3 year old who could do it. They also had a slanted one, and more kids could go down that one, and a very rare child could go up.

Anonymous wrote:OP, how old is your child?

She's almost 4. Quite petite, but sounds like she's well within the bell curve.

Anonymous wrote:At 4. She's 4.5 now and has been doing them since last fall.

Same. My kids were proficient at this well before kindergarten.