Gymnastics

[Manna]

Breanna's been enrolled in gymnastics for 2 weeks now, and we are TOTALLY loving it!! It is such a blessing to have it in our weekly routine now. She's at the older age of her group's bracket, but it's good for her, she's learning how things are supposed to work. Most of the children in there have been in preschool for a year or two as well as numerous other extra curricular activities, so she's much newer to this type of thing than the rest of them.

She's apparently very naturally talented in this area, her instructor has been impressed, or so he's saying. I've always thought that she was talented, but come on, I know how biased I am!

I don't believe in having her schedule overrun with things like this, but this little activity for one hour a week is really great for us.

Is anyone else doing something similar with your children? I know more of the older kids will have busier schedules, but I think this is enough for a girl that's not quite 4 yet. =)

 

[GolfingMom]

We almost signed up YS for Gymnatics but with held (for now). Kiddo's enjoy AWANA (not very active but it takes up so much time) and one more Bible class they're in. They do enjoy swimming too.
I'm in the same boat as you - don't put the kiddo's in too many activities which is hard when you want them to try everything.

 

[Manna]

Ooh, I really wish we had an AWANA program at our church -- I've heard such wonderful things about it!!

Gymnastics for her age group (I'm assuming it's different as they get older, but I'm not sure) is $40 a month, which is a splurge, but still fits into our budget. The gym is a Christian owned and operated company, which is SUCH a blessing. While the kids are tumbling around, praise music is playing in the background, which makes this Mama's heart relax a little. =)

 

[GolfingMom]

Ooh, I really wish we had an AWANA program at our church -- I've heard such wonderful things about it!!

Gymnastics for her age group (I'm assuming it's different as they get older, but I'm not sure) is $40 a month, which is a splurge, but still fits into our budget. The gym is a Christian owned and operated company, which is SUCH a blessing. While the kids are tumbling around, praise music is playing in the background, which makes this Mama's heart relax a little. =)

That's great! I love when Christian music plays in the background. My doctors office always has it and has max lucado books out for kids to look at. So relaxing/neat.
I'm happy she's having fun!

 

[lucypevensie]

Gymnastics would be so much fun. I know my kids would love it - just the play aspect, running and jumping and blowing off steam. Our kids will take swimming lessons this summer. It's at a nice Lutheran high school a few blocks from our house. They'll also take an art class this summer at their school. Somehow they seem to think this will not be fun, but I am pretty positive they'll love it.

Extra-curriculars can get really expensive. I had to save a 2 paychecks to be able to afford the swimming and art this sumer.

 

[Neenie1]

I am hoping to enroll dd in Swimming next Summer (which our Summer will be around Christmas)

She is 3 in June, I would have liked to do it earlier but never got around to it. We did a term of kindy gym, but she wasn't really keen on it, the first few weeks she loved, but I think she got a bit bored of it after that. It's not really very structured, which I guess I was looking for something a bit more structured than it was, especially since she has gross motor movement delays.

I think her physio said to hold off a bit if she's not enjoying it that much, maybe next year we might think about this.

 

[LilLamb219]

Gymnastics is awesome!!! My daughter still takes gymnastics classes (she's 14 and started when she was 3). We love our gymnastics time! I say "we" because I help out some times when the teacher brings the belts for them to practice their roundoff back tucks or whipbacks. It gives me good exercise to run alongside them LOL

Gymnastics can be a wonderful confidence builder!!! Love it!

 

[pmcleanj]

Gymnastics is one of those "extracurricular" activities that has tremendous life application: like swimming, it's a skill-set that arguably should be offered to every child, and that from a fairly early age. I started my daughters in gymnastics at three, because I wanted them above all to learn how to fall. I've seen dancers fall on stage or in rehearsal any number of times, and injure themselves badly because they couldn't release themselves into the fall. And even in normal falling accidents, the injuries are usually worse when the person becomes rigid with fear of falling instead of managing the fall. If they do nothing else in gymnastics but fall repeatedly into that pit of foam blocks, your children will come away with a body-management skill that might save them much pain throughout their adult years.

But it isn't all they come away with. For girls to start young to build upper-body strength (in which twentyfirst-century western women are notoriously deficient) and strong abdominal muscles gives them a health advantage over the encroaching obesity epidemic.

And, it's just plain fun to be able to cartwheel down the hall. I wish I could.

 

[rainbowbright]

My two daughters are in gymnastics. One is 3 and the other is 19 months, but my 3 year old is now potty trained so she is graduating to the preschool class. Her teacher is really impressed with her but lately she has become scared of the bars and balance beam to where she's screaming at the teacher, I really hope she gets over this soon. My oldest son wants to be in gymanstics too but it's just so expensive to put all four of my kids in. It's really amazing all the training equipment they have now, when I was in gymnastics, 20 something years ago, all we had was a basketball court with pads on the floor.

 

[ShannonMcCatholic]

So far all of my kids have been in gymnastics at some point--and have LOVED it. My 3 1/2 year old had it as her activity for the year- and really did great!

It's great for my kiddos because they are all soooooactive--gymnastics gives them a good introduction to body-awareness, the fruits of which I see in the crazy things my kids do everyday. (They all climb stuff--trees, poles, just everything..)