Gymnastics

For the past few years Emma and her best friend Mady had been taking a dance class together. Because of their age they were limited to one type of class called Creative Movements. The class was very good for them and taught them the basics of how dance class worked but I could tell that Emma was starting to get board with it. She had also started to express some interest in other areas, mainly Cheerleading. I looked into local cheerleading classed and groups but all of them required the child to either be in kindergarten or to be six years old. Since Emma didn't qualify under either I asked her if she would like to try gymnastics. I thought her having some gymnastic skills might help more next year when she gets to do cheerleading.

So six weeks ago her and Mady started gymnastics. Emma instantly fell in love with it. After each class she would come home and show me the new things she had learned (unless she needed a piece of equipment). One of my favorite things about this gym is that it's completely open so the parents can sit in the lobby/ play area and watch their kids during class and any siblings that come along can play or watch TV.

Yesterday was the last class of the first session. They did an obstacle course that had a little bit of everything they had learned over the past six weeks. It was kind of cool to see how much she had progressed. For instance the first time Emma had to walk across the big balance beam the teacher had to hold her the entire way but last night Emma walked it backwards, sideways, and forward without any help. I really wish I was able to take pictures in the gym but they only have 3 rules for us parents to follow and the first one is no flash photography.

At the end of class all the kids were allowed to go and get the Monkey Magnet that had their name on it which had been on the wall during the classes and they were each given a report card for us parents to see. they received ratings of Satisfactory, Outstanding, and Excellent for each thing they did. Emma received all O's and E's except for the one S in the springboard jump. She never seem to get those jumps quite right, usually jumping over the entire board instead of jumping on it.

Next week starts the second session for the fall and I can't wait to see all the new things she will learn.