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Gymmie says: Preschool is the Right Time.
Gymmie knows that preschoolers learn quickly. Gymmie loves movement, so Gymmie checked out a gymnastics class. A 3-year-old was taking his first turn walking across the balance beam. He clutched the coach’s hand tightly and took timid, wobbly steps. By his third turn, the wobble was gone from his step and tho’ he still wanted a little help from the coach, his fearful face had dissolved into a smile.
Preschool is the right time for children to master the FUNdamental movement skills of running, jumping, balancing, swinging, hopping, and rolling. Even if a child is having a little trouble with a skill, he or she is surrounded by peers who are all working on those skills. By elementary school many children have moved on to mastering sports specific skills. So give your young child as many opportunities as possible to play actively and have fun with movement.
Gymmie Says: Try it!
Gymmie knows kids can be nervous about trying new things. At gymnastics camp recently, preschool campers were waiting their turn to swing on the rope. Tommy (not his real name) did not even want to climb up on the block with the other kids and definitely did not want to touch the rope. The coach coaxed Tommy up on the block and his first turn was to push the rope away and say “goodbye rope”. After a couple of turns of that, the coach persuaded Tommy to try one swing with her help. Tommy sat on the knot in the rope, then with one hand holding the rope and the other clamped around the coach’s neck, Tommy did one swing. His look of fear turned into a cautious smile as he climbed off the rope. The next day Tommy needed a little help but held onto the rope and exclaimed, “I’m getting good at this.” By the next day he was swinging on the rope with no help and beaming from ear to ear.
Gymmie loves to see the smiles and pride that children get when they try something that makes them nervous or fearful. “I can’t do it” dissolves into “I can!” with a little help and patience.
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Gymmie Says: Kids need both Free Play and Structure
Gymmie knows children expand their imaginations, interact with others and explore their world through unstructured (free) play. Structured play can also help children develop social, emotional and physical skills. Finding the appropriate times for each type of play can be surprising. Here is an example: On a mid-August Thursday of a very hot summer, the three and four year olds at gymnastics camp seemed to have less concentration than usual. The kids had zipped through the obstacle courses in record time and were dashing to the monkey bars, parallel bars, and hanging rings whenever they could. Now it was time for our block of yoga. As the kids sat down on their yoga mats, they fidgeted and squirmed. It was going to be a challenge to keep them focused and participating. Generally, our yoga starts with music and some imagery while allowing children to choose their own movements. I could do that and their level of distraction wouldn’t matter. Instead I decided to be more structured and do a series of sun salutation movements to the music. To my surprise as I looked up from my first down dog position, almost every child was in down dog. I kept going with a brisk series of movements including some tricky ones. The kids followed, trying new poses and staying totally engaged. We had a great yoga session; probably the best all week.
I continued to think about the yoga experience through the afternoon. At a time when my first reaction was to give the kids more free play time, giving them structure worked better. Thinking more, I realized that when I have trouble concentrating it helps to have a task with defined steps. My brain needs to grab onto someone else’s structure. Other times when I am clear-headed, the creative, out-of-the-box ideas flourish.
Both unstructured and structured playtime help children develop. While my example outlined a successful use of structure, there are many other circumstances when giving children free playtime is what they need. Gymmie encourages anyone who works with children to provide both types of play experience.
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Gymmie Says: Try Gymnastics and Yoga
Gymnastics and yoga are the perfect combination for a young child’s education. Why? Through gymnastics children learn movement skills, body awareness, control, sequencing, balance, and coordination. Children have fun while maneuvering through obstacle courses, swinging, climbing, balancing, and jumping. Yoga also helps children gain body awareness, balance and flexibility. Yoga exercises children’s imagination and requires self-regulation to transition from activity to stillness. Most of all, children have fun learning physical and mental skills which provide building blocks for learning and enjoying physical activity
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Gymmie Says: Get an Active Start
The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) has developed Active Start guidelines to support it’s position that all children from birth to age 5 should engage daily in physical activity that promotes movement skillfulness and foundations of health-related fitness. The guidelines reflect the best thinking of specialists in motor development, movement and exercise about the physical activity needs of young children during the first years of life.
Gymmie thinks that the best way for children to learn movement skills is through play and having fun. Movement skills should be discovered through play as much as possible, especially for those children under 6 years old. However, some movement skills need to be taught. Employ teaching methods that help children learn while having fun. Why? Children naturally enjoy being active, so if physical activity continues to be enjoyable the foundations are laid for an active, fit life.
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