Jump On It!

  Last week in classes we focused on leg strength & stability. We jumped on the springboard and even balanced on the low trapeze. We use our legs every day for things like standing, squatting, running, and even riding a bike! It is so important for children to have the chance to learn to balance and jump around. We are so excited about our skill of the week this week which works on just that and more!

It is jumping and landing on a spot!

Jumping is a great skill for all ages; however, landing on a spot takes it a step further.

For older My Gymers (ages 2+), place two to three spots or hoops in a row and have your child jump from one to the other. Go slow at first then try picking up the speed. You can also give them a number of jumps to do on each spot. This skill helps children learn to use a springboard, but also helps give them understand boundaries and to comprehend a set of directions which will assist them with reading comprehension in school :) This is also great to teach your child to always land on their feet. Kids like to be silly, but landing on their knees or bottom can lead to an injury.

For our Mini My Gymers (under 2 years), help them out by spotting under their arms and give a little lift as you help them jump forward. The assisted jumping action will help them understand how to do it themselves as well as practice landing on their feet. Be sure to support their jumping but allow them to feel the ground and push back off it with their feet, working on impact

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Happy Jumping!

Our Skill of the Week is…

We have lots of fun upper body workouts planned for classes this week! We will be working on shoulder and arm strength on the bars, balancing and core strength on the flying carpet, and core strength for the lap walkover and V-Sits practice skills.

So to combine all of that arm, shoulder and core strength building, our skill of the week is…..

Wheelbarrows!

For our mini My Gymers, we have a beginning wheelbarrow. The goal of this skill is to help the children develop the core, arm, and shoulder strength to push their body up into the correct position and hold it there. The increased body control and upper body strength also leads to better coordination as the children learn to use utensils to feed themselves! It is basically the wheelbarrow without the forward motion, simply hold them in the correct position and shift back and forth to build strength and endurance.

For older My Gymers, the wheelbarrow skill works on body awareness as they work to understand where their body is in space and body control to move one arm at a time while squeezing their core to keep from collapsing to the floor. This also helps with shoulder and arm strength and control which relates directly back to better handwriting skills. All of the control gained from this skill also leads to better overall coordination for sports achievement.

For all children, start by lifting by the waist. You want their body to stay as parallel to the ground as possible. As they get better at it you can slide down to their thighs, then their knees, and finally their ankles.

The U shape of the back is what we don’t want to happen. This takes the pressure off the shoulders and core eliminating the intended workout. If this occurs, move your hands closer to their waist and encourage them to lift their belly up. Another fun way to encourage them to move forward is to set something out for them to wheelbarrow to :)

Happy Wheelbarrow-ing!

Shiver Me Timbers! Let’s Strengthen Those Legs.

This week our classes are celebrating Pirate Week in honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day coming up on Friday, September 19th. We are practicing walking the plank at our skill stations and being human cannonballs for our weekly ride.

So in honor of this silly little holiday, our skills of the week are stork stands and scales!

Scales help with balancing and focus, but more importantly they work on strengthening the ankle and lower leg. When we think about strength we usually talk about upper body and core body strength; however, lower body strength and coordination is what children tend to lack. Kids love to run, jump, climb, and skip around as they play both inside and out. All of that requires ankle and leg strength to support their bodies as they move around.

Stork Stand (Peg Leg Scale)

Help your little one by holding one of their hands or their hips.

Front Scale

 

Back Scale

After mastering the basic scales, try a few other things to help strengthen up those legs.

Try:

Holding each scale for 3, 5, or 10 seconds

Doing all of them without putting down your foot (the supporting leg will feel the burn!)

Doing them all without putting your foot down for longer periods of time (3, 5, 10 seconds each)

Have a family balancing contest with your child and see who can hold each position the longest

Try lifting your leg higher and higher to also strengthen the lifted leg

Happy strengthening!

96, 97, 98, 99, 100! We Have Abs of Steel!

In our classes this week, our skill station is working on different types of rolls on the wedge mat. Rolls work on tons of things, but we will be focusing on increasing core strength. We use the strength in our core for EVERYTHING throughout the day. Some examples include walking down the street, sitting upright in a chair or on the floor, climbing the stairs, playing sports, or playing on the playground.

Beginning to strengthen the core at a young age helps kids stay naturally strong as they grow. It also leads to better coordination throughout their motor skill development.

Our skill of the week works on developing & increasing that core strength and stability.

It is SIT-UPS!

For our young My Gymers, have them lay on their back and hold onto your fingers. Give a little tug to engage their abdominals and watch as they pull up to a sitting position! Guide them back down and try again. Be sure to watch out that their head doesn’t lag behind and that they land back on the floor gently.

 

For older My Gymers, have them lay on their back and put their arms up in front of them. Next, they should sit all the way up without using their hands and then slowly go back down.

BONUS: Try having them give you a high five when they sit all the way up or do a few with them and get your workout at the same time! It’s a win-win for everyone :)

Happy core-building!

 

Bilateral Coordination – Using Both Sides of the Body

Last week in classes, we learned how to use the stilts. Stilts are not only fun to use, but great for increasing coordination. The stilts work on balancing, core strength, focus, and bilateral coordination. Great balance in children leads to better coordination and achievement in school. Why is that? Since they are spending less time trying to balance in their seat, on the floor, or holding a book and more time focusing on completing and comprehending the task at hand. Bilateral coordination is using both sides at once to complete a task (riding a bike) or separately to do two things in conjunction (use scissors with one hand and hold a paper with the other).

Our skill of the week this week focuses on improving the same two major skills (balance and bilateral coordination).

It is a Knee Scale. 

Be sure to start by lifting one leg straight back. After finding a good balance there, then lift the opposite arm out in front.

Ribbit, Ribbit! Jumping is Calming?

This week in class we are working on a skill station called Springboard to Horse. The Springboard works on timing, jumping, leg strength and impact (joint strength and stability). And here is a FUN FACT…encouraging your child to jump around helps them to calm themselves down. Jumping is a muscle work activity and it can help children to work off the energy, calm down, and re-focus their mind. Who would have guessed?!  So, for this week, our skill of the week is Frog Jumps, which works on all of the same things as the Springboard portion of the skill station.

Try it out before bedtime and help your child prepare to climb into bed. How many jumps can they do?

For young babies up to 2.5 years –

Hold under arms and lift up, as they come back down they will bend their knees as they land, help them bounce back off those feet, repeat a few times.

For children 2 and 3 years old –

Encourage them to get small, jump up, then get small again and repeat. Encourage them to always land on their feet!

For children 4 and up –

Squat and touch the ground, jump up high with arms up, then get small again – repeat 3-5 times.

Challenge!

Jump higher

Jump farther

Do Frog Tuck Jumps! Very tricky and requires excellent leg strength, timing, and body control

 

Happy Jumping! Ribbit, Ribbit!

Skill of the Week | V-Sit

This week in all of our gymnastics classes, we are working on balancing on the Hot Dog. This helps with core strength as children walk across it. It also helps kids of all ages learn to focus on completing a task and building the confidence to know that they can do it!

V-Sits are a fun skill that you can practice at home, which also works on developing core strength and increasing focus. Two VERY important skills as the kids go back to school this week!

6 Months- 3 Years 

3-4 Years 

4 and Up

No hands touching the floor, legs together, hold and count to 3, 5 and 10 seconds

Happy Balancing!