KinderGym
KinderGym is structured as a 45 minute coed class designed for children ages 4 through 7. Class focus is on student understanding and development of proper body positions and core gymnastics skills, including rolls, cartwheels and handstands. High-energy games and activities are incorporated to build strength, flexibility, body awareness and confidence. Group skills and positive interaction with others is emphasized. Cost: $55 per month.
Class CurriculumOur KinderGym curriculum incorporates skill development and experience on all girls and boys event equipment, with an emphasis on tumbling skills and strength.
Boys and girls are intermixed in groups and work on the same skills and equipment with no distinction between men's and women's events. The focus is on building strength and confidence, improving balance and gaining body control and awareness. Typical classes begin with a warm-up activity or game and stretching. Students are then divided into smaller groups and work with one or more instructors on specific events. Groups rotate approximately every 10 minutes and work on three events per week. Classes in this age group typically end with a cool-down parachute game. Learning to pay attention to instructions, take turns, treat other students and teachers with respect, and work successfully with both friends and other children is an important aspect of the curriculum. |
Why Gymnastics?With all the sports available to kids, why choose gymnastics?
Although fitness, physical improvement and coordination are the most apparent advantages gymnastics brings its athletes, the benefits of the sport reach much farther to social, emotional and mental development. Gymnastics offers obvious physical benefits through the development of strength, flexibility, agility, coordination and body control. Participating in a gymnastics class nurtures social development, as kids learn to take turns, respect others and interact with classmates and teachers in a positive manner. Setting and striving to reach goals helps kids improve maturity, handle success and failure and builds emotional development. Gymnastics builds Brain Power! Using your muscles helps build your brain. Check out the article below on how gymnastics helps kids in school. |
Skill Goals
- Positions: tuck, pike, straddle, lunge, straight body, hollow body
- Floor: jumps, leaps, forward and backward rolls, cartwheels, headstand, handstand, bridge
- Bars: front support, casts, swing in pike, sole circle, pullover, forward roll dismount, back hip circle
- Beam: knee scale, squat turn, straight and tuck jumps, v-sit, front scale, relevé walks, leg balance, mount
- Vault: proper run and stick technique, hurdle, straight vault, tuck jump vault, squat on, dive roll vault, board kick to handstand
- Rings: pike glide swing, skin the cat, inverted hang, 3 second L-sit
Gymnastics Can Help Kids in School
Flip on the Focus
Any time a child participates in activities that require moving large muscles and the compression of joints, this is referred to as heavy work. Heavy work is a term used in the therapy world to describe the types of activities that help focus the brain. Vaulting, hanging, flipping, climbing, and leaping are examples of phenomenal heavy work opportunities for children. Focusing with ease leads to learning with ease.
Hang Ten for Handwriting
Observing children swinging on uneven bars seems as far away as one can get from observing a child trying to write a paragraph, but
actually, the two require remarkably similar skills. For children to have good handwriting skills, they must have strong muscles that work together for a common cause. Mighty abs, back muscles, shoulder muscles, forearms, wrists, and fingers are essential for good writing skills. When children have poor upper body strength and weak core muscles, they have trouble sitting upright at a desk, holding a pencil, and writing legibly. Bar work strengthens all muscle groups responsible for writing with ease.
Rolling Into Reading
Brain connections are made through the activation of a important system that lies deep within the inner ear. This system is called the vestibular system and is the Olympic gold winner when it comes to brain development. Working in tandem with the brain, the
vestibular system integrates auditory, visual, and tactile input. Specific types of movement common to gymnastics help the vestibular system develop properly. These include the back and forth movement in swinging, the rotational movement as in twisting, and the up and over movement used for rolling.
Magnificent Moves for Math
Math is a spatial sport! The more children move in different ways, the more connections are made in the brain that improve spatial awareness. For children to be able to understand mathematical equations and geometric principles, they need good spatial skills. All gymnastics moves improve body awareness and wire the brain for math success.
Credits: Technique Magazine, March 2011, copyright S'cool Moves, Inc., www.schoolmoves.com
Any time a child participates in activities that require moving large muscles and the compression of joints, this is referred to as heavy work. Heavy work is a term used in the therapy world to describe the types of activities that help focus the brain. Vaulting, hanging, flipping, climbing, and leaping are examples of phenomenal heavy work opportunities for children. Focusing with ease leads to learning with ease.
Hang Ten for Handwriting
Observing children swinging on uneven bars seems as far away as one can get from observing a child trying to write a paragraph, but
actually, the two require remarkably similar skills. For children to have good handwriting skills, they must have strong muscles that work together for a common cause. Mighty abs, back muscles, shoulder muscles, forearms, wrists, and fingers are essential for good writing skills. When children have poor upper body strength and weak core muscles, they have trouble sitting upright at a desk, holding a pencil, and writing legibly. Bar work strengthens all muscle groups responsible for writing with ease.
Rolling Into Reading
Brain connections are made through the activation of a important system that lies deep within the inner ear. This system is called the vestibular system and is the Olympic gold winner when it comes to brain development. Working in tandem with the brain, the
vestibular system integrates auditory, visual, and tactile input. Specific types of movement common to gymnastics help the vestibular system develop properly. These include the back and forth movement in swinging, the rotational movement as in twisting, and the up and over movement used for rolling.
Magnificent Moves for Math
Math is a spatial sport! The more children move in different ways, the more connections are made in the brain that improve spatial awareness. For children to be able to understand mathematical equations and geometric principles, they need good spatial skills. All gymnastics moves improve body awareness and wire the brain for math success.
Credits: Technique Magazine, March 2011, copyright S'cool Moves, Inc., www.schoolmoves.com