Introducing Gymnastics

Motor development includes learning head control, trunk stability, and then standing up and finally walking.

Baby Zara is now a waddler and she is fast in crawling. I saw a new baby place in the mall where infants and toddlers can do gymnastics. I was curious enough to queue at the information desk and ask their programs. Luckily they have an on-going open house and i signed up for a night 40mins trial session of 10 babies with guardian/parents. 

We were tasked to make a circle with babies on our lap on the red circle on the floor mat. Zara here was very attentive because there are other babies. Two teachers sung and made hand movements for us to follow the greetings song. 

There are three parts for this gym session. First, the hand stand where Zara balancing on hands in an inverted vertical body position that lasted for 3-5 seconds. She did not cry and was pretty amazed by the experience and was watching other babies do their turn. Second, is the forward roll in a slope. Zara cried here because it was a sudden flip. I had to bring her attention to another item on the gymnastic playroom which is the bridge where Zara enjoyed waddling on the bar to cross the bridge. She was all smile and going back and forth the bridge. The teacher saw this and advised me to let baby Zara walk on the gymnastics balance beams and its funny how she tried to cross one end to the other with feet first and body following after, eager to get to the other end. The third skill was to hold on as she hangs on the bar and sway the bar from teacher to guardian/parents. Zara cried because she cannot keep her hands on the bar for a long time yet. I took her and made her enter the colorful tunnel to crawl her way to the other side. Then I asked her to climb the stairs to the pool of colorful round toys, she loves it so much. 

We did another circle to close the session by introducing turtle puppet and baby Zara was scared to pet the animal but likes when other babies respond to the puppet. Another song where we should raise babies from the ground to catch the rings hanging on the ceiling. We had goodbye song and let the babies explore. Zara went after the large roll where she can push it and rolls forward and she steps more to push the roll. There was also a table with musical toys that I let Zara play for some time.

Infants can truly learn from the experience as the activities in the session is not something they can do from home on a daily basis. The presence of other babies also made an impact on how other kids react and observe. Attending such session will not only be beneficial to the child but also to parents as they get to know more of the skills their child can do and what more they can contribute to develop their child's skill. This can be another milestone as a family recorded with pictures and good times that can bring smiles.  

This is my treat for baby Zara as she turned 11 months December 14, 2013.

Photos taken by me using my Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX100.