Thursday, August 14, 2008

A Perfect Ten!


Today Ellie went to her first gymnastics class and LOVED it! She has been excited for several days about this and I think it lived up to her (and our) expectations. It is really a pre-gymnastics class for 30 to 40 month olds and is a parent/child class, which helped Ellie feel more comfortable. They focused a lot on some basic gymnastics skills but also on stretching, balance, and coordination. The class is organized into three different circuits. Each circuit consists of several different activities that the kids move between. At the end of the class they went into the big gym where the older kids have class and bounced in the big trampoline. I think that was Ellie's favorite! Since it went so well, we enrolled Ellie in the class and will be there every Saturday morning for the next two months (and depending on how she likes it, maybe beyond!).


Ellie and Jana warming up with everyone before class


After warm-up we started with the first circuit....





Ellie walking on the balance beam


Ellie getting instruction from her teacher on tumbling



Just hanging around!


Ellie got a little coaching on the bar and learned how to do the pike position...



Rocking on the special "seesaw"



At the end of class they each got a turn on the big trampoline where the teacher was trying to teach them how to land with their legs spread out (straddle jump) and how to land on their bottoms (seat drop) and then bounce back up to their feet. Ellie got the straddle jump but was a little confused about the other one. At the end, the teacher does a cute thing - she tells them she is making popcorn, sprinkles their head with pretend salt, and then bounces them up in the air. Ellie loved this part!






The gym doesn't allow any flash photography and our camera always takes blurry pictures when the automatic flash is turned off.

5 comments:

Four peas in a pod said...

Watching her do gymnastics gave me such a sense of joy!!!

Run! Jump! Laugh! Sing! Embrace all that is good my little sunshine!!

-Mommy

Jess(ica) said...

she's a natural... maybe we'll see her in the olymics in 16 years! =) I liked that popcorn part the teacher did, that was cute!

Anonymous said...

She is AMAZING! She took to it like a duck to water. GO, ELLIE!!!!!

not2brightGRAM said...

Ah-h-h-h, the gymnastics days! Spent a few hours doing that. Both of my girls did that gig.

Ellie seems a little young for that, but they must be starting them sooner.

3dingsandadog said...

It seems like just yesterday that Ellie was Audry's age and now she is into gymastics! Hope she enjoys it!