Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Gymnastics Class

On the Friday before Christmas, we took the girls to Miyagi Gym in Auburn. They teach gymnastics for people from 18 months to 18 years and I think even older. We went to the Parent and Toddler class, which is 18-36 months. They are four week sessions. The first time you go, they let you "tryout" for free. Friday's class was the last one of the year and the end of that 4-week session.

The class started at 9:15 am and went for 45 minutes. Sarah and I went together. There were probably 6-7 other children in the class. There was one other dad. We recognized one of the mom's from Placer High School. She was a grade or two above us. I think her name was Tina May (Sarah remembered her more than I did). It took our girls the typical 15-20 minutes to warm up, but then they were playing like everyone else.


The first activity was a warm-up, which was just running around the mat on a white line. After 3-4 laps, they began what I would consider the more structured activities. They had the children run an obstacle course that involved climbing up pads, hopping down, crawling through tunnels, riding a see-saw, and walking two different directions on a balance beam. The girls still weren't totally into it, but they had fun.

Next was another, more involved obstacle course. The children had to climb up a ladder, hop onto a pad, run up a padded ramp, go belly-first onto a hexagonal "log," roll along the log and do a somersault off, hop backwards about 5 feet, then climb across horizontal bars. It was great fun, especially the backwards hopping. The girls did a Great job. I was surprised at how well they went up the ladder and across the horizontal bars. We have some video of them hopping backwards, too.

Emily:

Ella:

After several laps for each child, the teacher brought out a parachute, and we played various games, all of them involving balloons. At the end of the parachute games, the children got about 5 minutes of free play. Here's a quick video of Ella (white and pink) and Emily (blue and grey) playing with the balloons on top of the parachute.

And here are a few stills from the class.