Wordless Wednesday #320 - Gymnast

Another year of gymnastics! Yes!

A few years back Little Miss was not impressed with gymnastics and gave us a hard time going each week. We told her to stick with it until the end of the year. The next year we went back, and she has been enjoying it ever since. Each year I ask her if she wants to continue, and it's always a Yes!

I am so glad we prolonged it, and did not stop with it immediately! (We have a rule that you have to do an activity for at least a year!)

It is such good exercise for the little body, and she is constantly doing head stands, hand stands and cart wheels at home and at school!

2015 end-of-year gymnastic championships

Her classes are on a Saturday, and it's been messing with our Saturdays for 5 years now! But we will be doing it while she still wants to do it!


Tammy Smith is still doing the Tiny Tumbles at Roosevelt Park Recreation Centre.
She starts the little ones from one years of age, and she has expanding her teaching now to older kids as well!
I can really recommend her!

Facebook: Tiny Tumbles


Related posts:

- Gymnastic Championships - a first

- The enthusiastic gymnast

(I was not asked or paid to say this! ;-))  

Wordless Wednesday #289 -Run

A Teddy for the Teddy Bear Clinic

Tammy at Tiny Tumbles gymnastics had her yearly collection of teddy bears for the Teddy Bear Clinic. Teddy Bear Clinic works towards holistic child protection services, and a teddy bear helps in bringing comfort to a little one that has been through a traumatic experience!

Little Miss really struggles to part with her toys, and especially her bears. (Hoarder Deluxe!
We definitely blame the parents!)

Previous years we had to buy a bear to donate. But this year we said that she should make a choice...

It was difficult, but Little Miss finally decided on this lovely bear. He has been a gift from London, from her Aunt. (Thank you, Ronél!)

He is soft and cuddly, with a touch of Christmas cheer with the red and white scarf!

We love the idea that he has been called for higher duty!
I am proud of Little Miss for making a choice and parting with a dearly loved possession!

Gymnastic Championships - a first

Little Miss has been doing gymnastics since she was 18 months.
There has been ups and downs. We had to deal with a reluctant gymnast about two years back, but the next year she went back with enthusiasm, and she has been going weekly "without a hitch".

(Just sometimes, the sun shines too brightly, or there's a bump, or...
Little Miss does get emotionally sidetracked quite easily! A phase? A preschooler characteristic?)

She did not want to practice her routine, at all, but told us that she was ready!

We had to slot her in with the younger group since we had other plans for the afternoon. She could not compete with the group, but she still got a score and a medal.

Luckily they practiced with the children before the final rounds of the championships.
Of course Little Miss did better while practicing, but she did very well overall.

This was the floor routine:


She got 9.3 for this floor routine, and 8.6 for the jump.
Not bad for a first time.

The MC told us that it was the parents' job to deal with questions about why only some gymnasts get more than one medal...
(We also got the questions!)


For now we will continue with the gymnastics for next year. Little Miss is still enjoying it! We saw with the occupational therapy that the gymnastics has given Little Miss an extra edge!

Wordless Wednesday #250 - Gymnastics with Dad

Wordless Wednesday #233 - Hanging on one leg

Wordless Wednesday #231 - Head stand

Finals and end of the year

I am sure everybody is busy with endings and final sport days and end-of-the-year events!

It is hectic! And we have just one little one that's keeping us busy...

Little Missy had her Sport(s) Day at school on Saturday. I liked the fact that all took part, and they all got a chocolate (most important!) medal after completing 10 items.

Little Missy enjoyed the hurdles the most. She lined up for a race with the boys as well.

She also had her end of year gymnastics! It seems we will continue with it next year! She has been enjoying it. Not like the previous year where we had seen a number of melt-downs of a reluctant gymnast...

I love the end of the year! It is great to be able to look back at the year, and thinking that you have made/accomplished it!

I am also very proud of The Student who finished her second year at Varsity.
She is waiting for a final mark, but it seems she passed all her subjects!
Now the students have nearly three months of holidays!

Enjoy!

The enthusiastic gymnast

We had a reluctant gymnast on our hands at the end of last year. Little Missy complained and did not want to go. She was also very demanding that we stayed next to her with the little gymnastics.

It changed at the beginning of this year, and she has been happily going, and doing the exercises on her own.

On Saturday she moved up to a bigger class, where they will be learning to do small routines.

I have a rule that if you start with a new activity, that you should do it for at least a year. After that you can change your mind again. It is expensive to pay the fees and pay the clothes, and then just to move on to the next thing.

I am glad that we did not stop going to the gymnastics.

Update

It has been crazy here. I think everyone has the same experience, with all the end-of-the-year finals and stuff coming up.

We have only the Little One to sort, and we have to decide on which overlapping event to attend!

I have been busy working on a presentation, which kept me busy for a month (at least). I was cursing and stressing about having said yes, but it all went well in the end. 

It is sometimes necessary to accept some challenges! It helps to become not too complacent. Although you wonder about your own sanity, and why it is necessary to rattle your own complacent little box, while you are stressing out big-time!

I completed my first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) before that, and it also took up a lot of my time. I am definitely going to do more of these. It is free!

Little Missy is busy as well! She never stops practising the hand stands and roll-overs and ... Any kind of movement she thinks of doing next! She is moving up to the bigger class at gymnastics on Saturday, which is also going to be a change for her!

I have to conjure a different hairstyle for her each day! The previous week she had a tantrum about wanting curly hair. At six o'clock in the morning I had to make her hair curl! (Mothers can do anything!)

For the nerds/geeks here: I finally upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS 7, and I am loving it! I was contemplating chucking the thing, and all of a sudden it's got a new life! 

I am teling everybody I know about it, and somewhere someone must share my enthusiasm!?

Happy weekend!

Video of Tiny Tumbles classes through Animoto

Tiny Tumbles

Check out this video I made with @animoto - Tiny Tumbles #videos #apps #mobile http://t.co/QswQwQ2pnJ
— Karen du Toit (@karentoittoit) June 18, 2013

I have been playing around with applications on my mobile for an online mobile librarian course. (ANZ 23 Mobile Things).

I love this for a quick and sleek professional video made from your photos or videos on your mobile.
It is available on Android and on iOS, but unfortunately not on Blackberry.

Wordless Wednesday #166 - Gymnastics jump to bicycle stand

The reluctant gymnast

For the past few weeks we have had a reluctant gymnast who does not want to take part in the gymnastic exercises anymore.

She tells us she does not want to go.

But she loves hanging and swinging and jumping on the trampoline. It's just when they are asked to stand in a group and doing the warm-up exercises, or having to do exercises on their own...


We are not supposed to help them anymore and have to look on from the side. She still wants us to stand with her and hold her hand...

I look at all the other children and they all get their uncooperative days.

But she has been doing it now for quite a while...

I don't know if it's worth forcing her! I would have loved for her to continue a little longer. I think the exercises are extremely good, and she gets to catch up on milestones she might have missed, such as not crawling (she only did a crab creep).

How long should I give her before we call it a day?

What do you do about extra activities and children suddenly deciding they do no want to go anymore?

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wordless Wednesday #140 - Pommel Horse exercise

Mini Olympics - tips for children at home

The Olympic Games will start today in London, and there is nothing that inspires one but to see the greatness of physical achievements in action.

I still remember how we used to start exercising vigorously when we used to watch the Olympics when we were children...

Tammy Smith, gymnast and owner of Tiny Tumbles, has posted a list on Kidzworld of Mini Olympics we can do with the children at home. The Toddler still has tiny gymnastics classes each week with Tammy, and I think we will definitely continue as long as possible.
Mieka enjoys it immensely, and I can see how far she has progressed since she started doing the gymnastics.

Tips to help your family to enjoy the fun and games of the Olympics:

1. Some favourite games that can be played:

    - Egg and spoon race (with boiled eggs)

    - Wheelbarrow race (The biggest of the two holds the second person at the knees while they run on their hands)

2. Gymnastics:

    - Handstand competition (stand with you back against the wall and place hands on floor. Walk with your feet up against the wall, and see who can hold the position the longest)

   - Walking on a low beam or pole at home without falling off (an extra one put in by me)

3. Ball sports:

    - Balloon volleyball (helps with hand-eye coordination and much easier to control than normal balls. See how many times you can hit it back and forth without it landing on the ground)

4. Wrestling:

     - Pillow fights (on the bed with cushions. If you get knocked down you get tickled.)

You can read Tammy's list here: Mini Olympics Games ideas for children


I am sure there are a lot more Olympics Games to think of.
Do you have any more ideas?

Wordless Wednesday #117 - Toddler head stand

Movie Clip Monday #23 - spider exercise

Make like a spider with Tammy Smith of Tiny Tumbles.


(Thanks to Tasneem at MumDrum for her Movie Clip Monday idea)

Related post:
Movie Clip Monday #22 - Body awareness exercises

Threats from our toddler

37 months on Saturday and she knows how to make a threat!


“I am going to tell my sister!”
(The sister who is now at varsity.)

Then it gets more violent after that, because she tells us what her sister is going to do with us…

With guns and knives…

It’s funny, but also NOT!

Where does she get the language? Because it is not how we speak to her or each other…

A sad reflection of our society today?

Too much TV?

Bad TV?

Bad parenting?

We find that being a 3-year old is a very aggressive age!


The year is in full swing and its back to tiny gymnastics again! She missed the classes, and I could see the improvement from the previous year.

Tiny Tumbles

The Toddler met her new cousin, and we had a whole discussion about the family hierarchy.

“Sunet is my baby!”
Dad: “No, she is Elise & Karel’s baby! She is your cousin!”
“She is MY cousin, not yours!”
Dad: “Of course, because I am her uncle!”
“She is not Clarisse’s cousin!”
Dad: “No, she is Clarisse’s sister!” and so on...

She also did not want me to take the baby home!

Welcome, Sunet!

We had a very relaxing weekend with our toddler, and there was time to do some decorating in her room, thanks to Mr Price!

Pinocchio turned out to be a scary bed-time story, because she woke up screaming about the growing nose last night!
Back back in the shelve with Bambi...

Monday, and missing the little face her again!


How was your weekend?


Related post:
Some toddler stuff

Movie Clip Monday #22 - Body awareness exercises at Tiny Tumbles

Tiny gymnastics on Saturday.

The Toddler was in a good mood...

She was very excited that she got to do a foreward roll on her own as well!