Gymnastics (9.30)

(The first picture of Ella in the video shows how she was a little scared at first.)

I signed Ella up for gymnastics class once a week. She had her first class. She was a little shy overall and then warmed up a bit doing things. By the end she had so much fun.

Everyone started with some warmups doing things across the mat. I think there was running, walking with a kick, tip toes, walk on heels, jump forward, jump backward, bear crawl, backwards scoot. Then they sat and stretched.

Then a second instructor instructor came in since the class was so large. We split into 2 groups and I sort of made sure we got the new instructor since Ella was afraid of the male instructor.

We went on the bars first. The other group went on the balance beams first. Then we switched. I feel like we were on the bars a lot longer than the beams but I'm not sure since I didn't look at the clock.  Then the last little bit of class was free play and the kids could do anything they wanted.

On the bars they did so many things in a circle and then repeated.
swing on the rings 5x (or was it 3)
go across the monkey bars
 something where they hold on to the bar and wrap their legs around it and hang for 5 seconds
hold onto bar and hang straight down and hold for 5 seconds
hold onto bar and hang down but swing 3 times
hold onto a parallel bar and have legs drape over other bar
(I can't remember the terminology used. We were told it one time while kids wanted to get started)

Ella would hold onto the rings and move but her feet dragged. She's so tall!  I tried to teach her to bend her legs at the knee to get to swing.
She liked both of the ones where you used your legs and arms to hang. When an instructor would come to help though she'd look terrified and wouldn't get as relaxed and wouldn't extend her arms as much.  She needed a lot of help on the monkey bars but she got better as time went on.

Then when we switched to the balance beams, the instructor chose Ella to demonstrate the loop!
There were a few beams and something different was done on each one.
Walk on the first one but at each tape put your feet together and put your arms up and say "ta da"
walk sideways
walk across this low/safe one without parent support
jump on the trampoline 10 times
walk across the beam
walk across but step over taped sponges.

Ella did so well on the beams. She even got better at trying to say "ta da."  Her stride was a little off for the sponge one so she'd end up stepping on the sponge. I was trying to each her to take a smaller step and land right before it and right after.

For free play there was a long trampoline. Ella liked that. She'd just run across it versus doing fancy stuff.   For some reason Ella liked to play with the cones. She'd use them as a hat. But then she'd also stack them all up and put them away. Then later she'd notice they were out again and she'd put them all away.

I met a lady and twins at the park a few weeks ago and she was at this class. I didn't know anyone else.  There were 2 pregnant moms at class. There was also a little baby who slept in the carrier the entire class.

Every kid got stickers at the end of class. Ella loved it.  She wouldn't give the instructor a high five. He got them from the class twice and she wouldn't either time.  After he helped her on the long trampoline she gave him a little baby one.

When we were told it was free play, Ella initially signed to go potty. Then when I mentioned actually going she didn't want to leave. (She wouldn't go in the car after either. She held it until she got home.)

I spent over an hour trying to compile that video. I need a better way. Youtube editor is what I use now because it's the best I could find with minimal searching.  Any other suggestions welcome.