Welcome back to Kindergym!
We have had the BEST week welcoming everyone back to Kindergym! After a long time off due to the COVID-19 lockdown, it was lovely to see the excitement and smiles of our youngest athletes, and their caregivers, as they walked through the doors to restart their gymnastics journey.
With new members on board, and some children transitioning to school in 2022, we thought it would be a good time to take a closer look at our programs and reflect on what makes gymnastics a great activity for growing children!
Discover the Set Up
This week we celebrated our return to Kindergym with a welcome back theme, including some of our favourite activities on the beam, bars and trampolines.
On the P Bars, we enjoyed crossing the rope bridge and taking a big swing on the UFO rider and in the beam zone, we re-found our confidence to balance at height. Lots of our activities provided a sense of challenge and all of them were fun, which is just the right combination for learning!
During group time we practised lots of rhythm activities. A good sense of rhythm contributes to general coordination and it was a great chance to make friends with other little people who think kindergym is the best! We were really impressed with the focus and attention that everyone gave us and the effort to follow all of the instructions given by the coaches - well done little team!!
Taking it One Step at a Time
Children aged 0-5 are in a phase of rapid development. Their bodies are growing quickly and they are taking on new information at a rate of knots, but each child has a learning curve during this stage that is unique to them. Each child will develop at their own pace across each developmental area. Some will maintain a broad and reasonably consistent style of learning across developmental areas and some will naturally be slow in some areas as they race ahead in others. It’s important to remember that growing up is not a race and we are here to help you enjoy this fun stage!
Our Kindergym program is specially designed to put the child, and their family, at the centre of the Kindergym experience. There are so many benefits to participation in Kindergym, but they are most readily absorbed when the program is right for the individual family and meets the unique goals that each family has for their child.
With new members on board, we thought it would be a great time to review our different class types and to provide some information about the next step: Where to from Kindergym?
Our step 1 class is suitable for all preschool aged children and has a strong emphasis on child led exploration. The class includes short instructor led group activities that children can choose to join in with if they wish. Here, children are masters of their own learning and we provide encouragement and prompts according to the choices they make. Some children want to try a little bit of everything and others will want to repeat activities over and over again - both are great ways to learn! Step 1 classes can be a perfect compromise for families with more than one child to manage or to enjoy a regular activity with extended family, including cousins, in a setting that suits a varied age group.
Our step 2 class is best suited to children who are ready to follow instructions, with the help of their care giver. This class begins with some free exploration and group time before the children and their caregiver participate in two instructor led circuits. The role of the care giver is to reinforce coach instructions, give all important praise for effort and remind children of social rules such as turn taking. If your child is ready to focus and follow instructions, a Step 2 class will be perfect!
Our step 3 class is the final step in our preschool program. This class is most often suited to children attending school the following year. It follows the same structure as the Step 2 class however children are not supported by a one on one carer. This is quite a challenge as there are a lot of instructions to remember and interpret! To be ready for this class, children need to be physically, socially and emotionally independent.
If you are looking to start your gymnastics journey or wondering if your child is ready to try the next step, our friendly kindergym team would love to help.
Kindergym ‘Graduation’
2021 has flown by, so many of our kinder gymnasts are getting ready to take the big step into primary school next year. Our step 3 classes will celebrate this occasion with a graduation certificate at our end of year classes.
In 2022 we are excited to welcome children transitioning to school into our recreational gymnastics program. There are lots of options, but we will step you through the process. Information to help you enrol in an after school or weekend class in 2022 will be emailed to all members in the next couple of weeks.
To help with the transition from Kindergym to after school gymnastics, we also offer ‘Jump into Gymnastics’ sessions in the first few weeks of January 2022 which will give children the opportunity to get a feel for beginner gymnastics classes and know what to expect. Bookings for these sessions will open soon through our customer portal or iclass app.
With such a disruptive year, some school starters might crave familiarity and need a little extra time to enjoy the routine of kinder gym classes, even as they start school. They will settle in soon enough, so in the mean time, let them be little! If your child would prefer to continue in the Kindergym program for the beginning of next year, while school commitments are not full time, let us know and we can certainly accomodate this.