Gymnastics

In the quest to find activities that the girls will enjoy, I signed both of them up for a introductory gymnatics class at a local gymnastics gym. Inwe fell into the 3-5 category--which meant a non -mommy class. Larien, not being three yet, was in the mommy assisted class.

I will tell you more about Larien as I was there with Finwe in the backpack. Four kids were in the class, which will last seven weeks. Larien was the oldest and clearly the most independent and able. I used to think that Larien could not follow directions, but she does and she did in the class really well. She never needed my prompting, only my reminders to wait for her turn.

She did her warm up very well. She enjoyed the stretches and is, like all young children, quite limber. Next the teacher had the kids do different movements from one line to another. Examples are hopping, walking backwards, crawling like a crab, and side-stepping. Once that was done the kids got to jump into the pit, which is filled with 6 inch foam cubes. All of them were a little intimidated at first. After the first jump, the moms found it hard to get the kids to stop.

Next on the circuit was a course that included padded wedges to make forward rolls easier for little ones. The object of these courses are two-fold: 1) get the kids used to following a line for rotations through equipment and 2) get kids to learn the basics of different apparatus for skill acquisition. Larien has done forward rolls on an non-gravity assisting mat, so she found the wedges delightful.

The instructor then sat on a trampoline and allowed one child at a time to practice jumping. Again, Larien was enthusiastic, followed directions, and was quite good at jumping. She quickly caught on how to keep from falling in between bounces.

After the trampoline we moved to the "little gym" that had two courses. The first was a square of balance beams that were barely six inches above the ground. The second was a series of bars for swinging and a place to get used to handstands. Each kid chose a toy to balance on her/his head as they walked the balance beam. After the first circuit, Larien didn't want me holding her hand. The swinging was really quite fun for Larien. She enjoyed the small set of uneven bars because she got to kick a balloon hanging from the high bar while she was hanging from the low bar.

When I got the chance to talk to Inwe after class, she told me that she did the exact same things as Larien with the addition of backwards rolls and swinging on the bars with both feet and hands. One of the classes I'm going to ask the teacher if I can leave Larien with her so I can watch Inwe from the observation deck.

Both girls were very happy with the gymnastics class. When Phill got home, they filled his ears full of everything that they accomplished. Inwe is particularly proud of swinging with her hands and feet on the bar.