My husband and I decided to let Peanut do gymnastics twice a week. Monday nights so that he can go with us and be a part of it, and Wednesday mornings so that Peanut and I can get out of the house since we are normally home-bodies and Peanut likes to go "bye-bye"!
Today (yesterday, now that the post is published) was our second day of gymnastics in the first week. Once again we started with the bean bag warm-up. During the bean bag game, Peanut decided that another little girl in her class needed to have all of the bean bags, so she handed them to her one at a time. So much for doing the exercise, ha ha.
We went from the bean bag warm-up to the bars again. Today Miss Lina helped Peanut flip for the first time. She was not a fan of the flip until the end when we started cheering for her...then it was okay. Again Peanut didn't really want to do the exercise on the parallel bars, but she did a lot better on the uneven bars and put her toes up to the bar like she was supposed to. I still had to hold her up though, Peanut isn't ready to support her own weight. Once again the floor beam to walk across was a huge hit.
After bars station the kids did a floor/tumbling station. Peanut started with the back walkover mat with help from Miss Lina and Mama. She did an okay job but didn't really get it. The kids were then supposed to do a forward roll down the inclined mat and then straddle jumps over cones on the floor. Peanut didn't get that at all. She did NOT want to forward roll down the mat and just walked around the cones. Oh well. There were a few cat themed activity mats after that - one to stretch your leg behind you and one for a v-sit type of stretch. She wasn't really interested in those either. She's still young - and she definitely wasn't the only one uninterested.
From floor/tumbling we headed to beam. The same exercises they did on day 1. Peanut did the step-kick exercise really well on the floor and did it with one leg on the low beam. She did the forward roll on the floor beam once and then wasn't interested in doing it again. She wanted nothing to do with the high beam. Not a big deal, this class is just for fun right now :).
After beam we went to trampoline, which Peanut LOVES as long as Miss Lina is holding her hands. I'm not sure if I wrote this out for Monday, but Miss Lina said her goal for Peanut over the course of the 8 weeks for class is to jump on her own by the end. We will see :) I'm just glad she loves the trampoline. Again, no seat jump(?) for our little one. She stayed on her feet, thankyouverymuch.
After trampoline they did the tumble track into the foam pit. Everyone but Peanut. Peanut just stayed on the tumble track and watched everyone else go in.
That's all for now, be back Monday or Tuesday for a new week of classes!
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
And So It Begins...
I decided to write this blog to remember the days when we were just starting activities. Just as the infancy stage flew by us, I am sure that in the years to come we will look back and wonder how we got to the stage we're at. For now, activities are just beginning - but soon, I'm sure we'll be running around town for our kid(s).
On Monday of this week, Peanut (our 18 month old daughter) started gymnastics class. This is the first structured activity we've tried. It's a Mommy + Me class that she is participating in on Monday nights and Wednesday mornings and is so cute. The class is design for kids aged 18 months to 3 years old, but the older kids definitely get more out of it. Her teacher is Miss Lina, a fun and sweet lady who really tries to get the kids involved.
Monday started out with a dance and warm-up that some of the kids will do at the recital the gymnastics center has. We decided to opt out of the recital for now, since Peanut is still not really getting the exercises that they are doing. She can participate when she's a little bit older and understands what she's supposed to do. The warm-up began with a bean bag activity where the kids are supposed to hop from one end of a mat to the other and drop the bean bag into the bucket at the end. They then return to the beginning and grab another bean bag. Peanut participated in this, but isn't quite hopping yet, so she mainly just ran from one end of the mat to the other to drop her bean bag in.
The dance included shuffling from one star to the next and back, touching toes, jumping up, and doing what (I think) they call a candlestick activity - rolling on your back and standing back up again. Peanut tried to play with the star and watched all of the other kids doing their tricks. :) It's still fun and something different than what we do at our house.
From dance we went to bars. Peanut waited her turn, learned what 'Ta-Da' was, was held up to the bar to learn how to flip, went to the parallel bars (she was supposed to walk across them but instead she just touched them, she wasn't interested in walking across), on the uneven bars she stood on the low bar and 'jumped' (read: was carried as if she were jumping) to the high bar. The first day she just tried to learn how to hang on, but eventually she will hopefully hang on and touch her feet to the bar. I think it will take a while, she doesn't have much upper body strength right now! After the high bar was a low, fat beam on the floor that she could walk across. This was one of her favorite activities and she probably would have stayed there during the bars rotation if she could.
After bars we went to the beam station. She was supposed to do a forward roll on the floor beam, which she did with some help from Miss Lina and me but wasn't thrilled about. The low beam was meant for step kicks, which Peanut started to get the hang of. The high beam was supposed to be side steps, but she did not want to do that. She wanted to watch the older girls do gymnastics across the gym.
Then we went to trampoline. Peanut's favorite. Except she didn't bounce or jump on her own, only when holding Miss Lina's hands. She loved it though - huge smiles the whole time. So worth it. Other kids did seat jumps (I think that's what they are called?) where they jumped to their bottoms with their legs straight out in front of them and together. Peanut wasn't ready for any of that just yet. We're still working on jumping :).
We finished with the tumble track - jumping (or running in Peanut's case) down the long trampoline that ends with the foam pit. Peanut did not want to jump in so she just ran back and forth. God bless Miss Lina for her patience! She did really well and said that she would try a slide next Monday since Peanut loves slides.
On Monday of this week, Peanut (our 18 month old daughter) started gymnastics class. This is the first structured activity we've tried. It's a Mommy + Me class that she is participating in on Monday nights and Wednesday mornings and is so cute. The class is design for kids aged 18 months to 3 years old, but the older kids definitely get more out of it. Her teacher is Miss Lina, a fun and sweet lady who really tries to get the kids involved.
Monday started out with a dance and warm-up that some of the kids will do at the recital the gymnastics center has. We decided to opt out of the recital for now, since Peanut is still not really getting the exercises that they are doing. She can participate when she's a little bit older and understands what she's supposed to do. The warm-up began with a bean bag activity where the kids are supposed to hop from one end of a mat to the other and drop the bean bag into the bucket at the end. They then return to the beginning and grab another bean bag. Peanut participated in this, but isn't quite hopping yet, so she mainly just ran from one end of the mat to the other to drop her bean bag in.
The dance included shuffling from one star to the next and back, touching toes, jumping up, and doing what (I think) they call a candlestick activity - rolling on your back and standing back up again. Peanut tried to play with the star and watched all of the other kids doing their tricks. :) It's still fun and something different than what we do at our house.
From dance we went to bars. Peanut waited her turn, learned what 'Ta-Da' was, was held up to the bar to learn how to flip, went to the parallel bars (she was supposed to walk across them but instead she just touched them, she wasn't interested in walking across), on the uneven bars she stood on the low bar and 'jumped' (read: was carried as if she were jumping) to the high bar. The first day she just tried to learn how to hang on, but eventually she will hopefully hang on and touch her feet to the bar. I think it will take a while, she doesn't have much upper body strength right now! After the high bar was a low, fat beam on the floor that she could walk across. This was one of her favorite activities and she probably would have stayed there during the bars rotation if she could.
After bars we went to the beam station. She was supposed to do a forward roll on the floor beam, which she did with some help from Miss Lina and me but wasn't thrilled about. The low beam was meant for step kicks, which Peanut started to get the hang of. The high beam was supposed to be side steps, but she did not want to do that. She wanted to watch the older girls do gymnastics across the gym.
Then we went to trampoline. Peanut's favorite. Except she didn't bounce or jump on her own, only when holding Miss Lina's hands. She loved it though - huge smiles the whole time. So worth it. Other kids did seat jumps (I think that's what they are called?) where they jumped to their bottoms with their legs straight out in front of them and together. Peanut wasn't ready for any of that just yet. We're still working on jumping :).
We finished with the tumble track - jumping (or running in Peanut's case) down the long trampoline that ends with the foam pit. Peanut did not want to jump in so she just ran back and forth. God bless Miss Lina for her patience! She did really well and said that she would try a slide next Monday since Peanut loves slides.
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