Noticed different styles of teaching pre-school...

[bearkat]

My 4 year-old daughter has been taking gymnastics lessons for the past year at a giant club. This club offers cheer, martial arts and dance in addition to gymnastics, and there are always many kids around. They have a large space with lots of equipment. There is not a separate pre-school area, but there are small beams and bars. They will go through a circuit on all the events and usually end with jumping into the pit or trampoline. Sometimes during the circuits a kid will run away (not too far) and my daughter will sometimes sit down as if bored.

Then we purchased a coupon for another gym. It was very different, but also at a large club. This club only has gymnastics and cheer and has a top rated team with several girls getting scholarships every year; in fact when I saw the team working out, they seemed much more polished than at my daughter's club. They also had a separate area for pre-school, and the circuits seemed longer and made the children move constantly. My daughter kept moving and enjoyed her lesson very much. There was also time on the trampoline during the lesson. They began the lesson with just running around, and then they stretched.

Also, the floor portion had them doing more obstacle course type of movement.

I am more impressed with the second gym because it seemed more in tune with the nature of a 4 or 5 year old - keep them moving. I also appreciated the running at the beginning of class: my daughter used to have a lot of separation anxiety, and even now, the running helps to calm her nerves.

The second gym is a little bit farther, but I'm thinking of switching. Any thoughts to the different approaches? If a upper level team is better at a club, does it usually mean that the little ones are better coached as well? Should I even look at that? Does it not really matter as much during pre-school?

 

[3stars]

I don't know if one is considered better than the other, but I can comment on what is done at our gym and I'm very happy there. Our gym has a separate preschool gym. My children all started out in there and I have helped teach classes in there. It works so much better, in my opinion, because there are so many fewer distractions. When we do trampoline or pit, the preschoolers are taken into the big gym and it is more of a challenge to keep their attention because there is so much for them to watch.

Our typical class schedule is running, then stretching, then an introductory activity to the theme of the week, then rotations for events. Each class works on at least 2 events. The staff works really hard at having children as involved as possible than entire time and no more than 1 (or 2 depending on class size) sitting waiting for a turn at a time.

I know as my children have moved into the "big gym", they have been ready. They are able to do the warm-up, follow the rotations, and do the cool-down independently because they have previously been introduced to it in the preschool gym. I do think that doing the running and warm-up the same way each time is important for kids. It provides stability that they need to get into the proper mindset for class.

To me it sounds like the second gym is a better fit for your daughter. Is the distance unreasonable or just a mild nuisance? Good luck with your choice!

 

[BlairBob]

Quite honestly, I like to start my preschoolers on tumble track. Generally I can have a return station ( I usually use a floor beam and have them do basic walks). From there, we stretch out and go over positions and then hit events depending on how much time we have (40 or 55 minute class). Ideally, we would end on a game though sometimes I take them over to the big tramp instead of tumble-trak "tramp" usage.

Circuits tend to be the way to go with the kinder classes. With some 4 or 5yo, generally the ones who are more advanced and have more time in the gym, I may assign stations but quite often they get bored with these very fast. It works if you keep each station time limited to about 1 minute or less and keep them going.

To note, I do miss going over line basics such as the animal walks and basic movement patterns in lieu of using tumble-trak [straight, stretch, tuck, straddle, zig-zag ( and these backward ), donkey kicks to HS and roll out or forward rolls.] One option is to alternate it or do them as return stations but it can be very difficult to keep moving as you either have to wait for all the children to return to the line (which is slow) or just attempt to do on the fly (meh sometimes).