Tumbling Classes

For the past 7 weeks both of my pre-school children have been taking Tumbling classes at the YMCA on Wednesday mornings.  The YMCA has become important for my children, though I wish we found more time to take advantage of it, because some of my kids don’t have a gym class, one of them NEVER has had a gym class and sports teams are, depending on the school, either non-existent or have games on Sundays.  The Y has wonderful classes and facilities for the whole family too, and between these circumstances we justify its expense.  This is Nathan’s first tumbling class ever and both he and Kaitlyn enjoyed their classes very much.  They have fun being physically active, a goal of mine for them, and they like meeting other little friends their own age so it’s a fun social time for them.  We have virtually no children in our neighborhood so they don’t get playtime with anyone other than each other unless I take them out for that and the Y is a good, safe meeting place.  

Kaitlyn’s class is first and miraculously Nathan actually sits on the sidelines with me and does quiet activities.  Shocking!!!  Sometimes we look at kids magazines like The Friend or Kids National Geographic, sometimes we do puzzles and on this day Nathan was busy making tall bird houses with a set of wooden beading blocks.  I was very surprised at the patience Nathan shows every week.

On this last class of the session the class was less regimented and Kaitlyn got to choose which activities and stations she wanted to visit.  I love Kaitlyn’s arms up in the air mid-jump on the right and her little pink self joining hands with a friend on the left.

Kaitlyn is very hard to get a picture of since she doesn’t like to have her picture taken.  She kept peeking out at me from the hideout they had and then if she saw the camera she would dart back inside.  I finally just put the camera away so she would come out and do something.

I kept my distance and got a picture of her on the balance beam.  She practices balancing every chance she gets but especially on the stone wall and the curb on our walks.  Kaitlyn enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and being with the other kids and at the end she got a beach ball and a mini granola bar from her teacher to take home along with her weekly stamp on her hand and her foot.

Fifteen minutes after Kaitlyn’s class ends, Nathan’s begins.  He has a different teacher but the class is in the same location and usually they have lots more “stuff” out for Nathan’s Mom & Me class.  His teacher encourages the kids to come and play with their siblings and adult between the two classes and so both children take full advantage.  They loved going in the “mouse hole and tunnel” together, climbing and cave crawling and hoola hoop chasing together.

They loved going in the hide out together on this day as well.  It’s walls were made of mats and the “roof” was a parachute.  Very exciting!  Kaitlyn was hiding from me again, however, when I caught her by surprise.

Class started and Kaitlyn went to the sidelines to draw while we gathered to do the rainbow rope group activity.  The teacher alternates between group activities and child directed free play in about 10 minute intervals and the kids don’t have to participate in the group activities if they don’t want to which is about 50/50 for Nathan.  These kids are pretty young.  Nathan and I headed to the high and low balance beams and then I just followed him in circles around the whole gym.  Nathan is one busy boy and how the pictures of him aren’t all a blur I just don’t know.  But we have a whole lot of fun together.  Nathan runs and climbs and jumps and throws and he LOVES it!  He will be too old for this class in the fall so we are taking full advantage of this class right now.

Nathan used the cones and rubber signs for building a little tower. 

Monkey jumping mat… Nathan is pretty good!          Here comes the parachute.  Nathan loves to go underneath it when we “blast off” into outer space and sing “Twinkle”.  He always looks through the hole in the middle of the parachute every single time while we’re sitting underneath it.  He refuses to ride on the top of the parachute, however, when we sing.

Toward the end of every class there are bubbles to chase and pop.

Nathan also got his own beach ball and granola bar from his teacher to take home.  Kaitlyn had blown up her own while she was waiting and was pretending it was Aunt Rachael’s exercise ball.  These classes were so much fun that we decided to sign up for the next session of tumbling before the classes break for the summer.  It will be the last time Kaitlyn takes a preschool class during the day as she starts school in just a few months and Nathan will be ready to move up to a structured class that won’t include parent participation.  Everyone is growing up!  Everyone is having fun!