DYK? Gymnastics Can Help Kids Succeed in School!

With the start of a new school year fast approaching, parents everywhere are thinking about how to help their kids succeed. You may be checking out the latest research on power breakfasts, elementary-school style, or whether tutoring will enhance your child’s math skills. But did you know that regular gymnastics activity, in addition to being good for children physically, is a great way to give them a boost in school, too?

Physical Activity Relates to Academic Success

Numerous studies have shown that physical activity is good for kids in all kinds of ways. Not only does it help growth and development, it helps prevent health problems later in life as well. This page from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC, summarizes some of this information.

Why Gymnastics?

Now that you’ve learned about the benefits of physical activity, you may be wondering why gymnastics in particular, is helpful. If you’ve ever watched a gymnast in competition, you’re aware that these athletes develop strength through their workouts. It can also be inferred that they know how to eat healthy meals that provide energy without loading up on extra calories. However, gymnastics also gives kids a host of social, psychological, and cognitive benefits. This article from the US Elite Coaches Association, for women’s gymnastics, outlines just some of them.

Social Growth

Whether your child ever competes or simply enjoys a regular gymnastics class for fun, she will be gaining social skills. From the earliest levels, classes help kids learn to wait their turn and support their fellow students. They learn to cope with the frustration of struggling to learn a new skill and, if they move into competition, how to accept defeat. Kids make new friends that may not go to their school, thus widening their social horizons.

Psychological Benefits

While social skills are good to have, and will be useful throughout life, it’s the psychological growth that occurs through participation in gymnastics that has the greatest effect on academic performance. Children who participate in gymnastics programs gain in self-esteem, a trait essential to academic success. Gymnastics activities provide lots of opportunities for trying new things, while well-taught classes maximize that chances that those efforts lead to success. When your child feels good about her abilities at gymnastics class, she’ll likely transfer those feelings to school as well.

Why Choose When Your Child Can Do Both?

We all know that as parents making decisions becomes second nature. We don’t hesitate on the basics, like brushing teeth, eating vegetables, and completing homework. However, choosing extracurricular activities can be a bit trickier as household budgets and limited time get in the way. What if your daughter loves moving to music, but she also has dreams of Olympic gymnastics glory. How do you decide? How do you tell her she has to choose one or the other?

Dancenastics

We have a solution: Dancenastics. This popular class is just what it sounds like, a combination of dance and gymnastics activities. Students split each one-hour session evenly between learning the fundamentals of jazz dance and practicing gymnastics skills on the beam, vault, bars, and trampoline. This makes it an ideal environment for your young dancer/athlete to try out both disciplines. She may make a clear choice right away or switch back and forth from week to week. However, chances are that after participating for a year in this class, she’ll have a better idea of which one is her favorite. If she still can’t choose, another year of Dancenastics is always an option.

Benefits

Participation in these classes offers all the benefits of our regular dance and gymnastics classes. Your child will learn about taking turns and team spirit, as she encourages her classmates to try a new gymnastics skill. She’ll also gain problem-solving abilities and the self-confidence that comes with finding successful solutions. Studies have shown that children who participate in dance or gymnastics on a regular basis not only perform well in school, they gain a love of physical activity that will help keep them healthy throughout their lives.


Class Details

Dancenastics is available for three separate age groups: Preschool (3 to 4 years old), Beginner/Advanced Beginner (5 to 7 years old/Kindergarten through 2nd grade), and School Age (7 to 11 years old/3rd through 5th grade). Students are required to have a solid-colored leotard and black, split-sole jazz short boots. As an added bonus, students are also eligible to participate in our year-end Spring Recital!

One additional benefit of participation in Dancenastics is that after your daughter decides which activity she prefers, she can move into either gymnastics or dance classes right here at Tumblebees.

What Your Child Can Get Out of Competitive Teams

When your child wants to join a sports team you’ll have lots of questions. How much time is required? Will we still be able to have family time? What about homework? What about school altogether? For many teams, such as soccer or softball, the time commitments are not so large as to significantly affect your family’s lifestyle. For gymnastics, the commitment is much larger, but before you say no, think about the benefits for your child of participating with competitive gymnastics teams.

Basic Benefits

Just as with recreational gymnastics classes, children’s overall fitness continues to improve when committing to a team. Strength, flexibility, and endurance all increase as your child spends more time working on gymnastics skills and routines. At the same time, as her abilities move to new levels she’ll also become more confident not only in the gym but in all areas of her life. Most children who are involved in a competitive sport that they love also do well in school, despite the time required for workouts and competitions.

Growth of Mental and Emotional Skills

Joining a competitive gymnastics team also boosts a child's mental and emotional growth. Goal setting becomes more important, giving her a solid foundation for this life skill. Learning how to cope with the boredom of repetition, as a child practices the same routine over and over again, contributes to a mental toughness that lets her see beyond the moment to the ultimate goal. And as hard as it may be to accept, turning in a less-than-stellar performance at a competition teaches resilience so your child can get up and try again.

Social Rewards

Although you may be concerned that the commitment required by competitive teams may take away from your child’s social life, many former gymnasts agree that the friendships formed with team members are among the most solid and long-lasting of their relationships throughout their lives. Your child will learn to cheer on her teammates and rejoice for the one who achieves the highest score. Children on competitive teams also learn about commitment; they don’t want to let their coach and teammates down, so they go to practice even when they don’t want to.


Overall, whether your child competes with a series of teams as she grows older or finds that a couple of years of competition is all she wants, she’ll achieve a sense of accomplishment she can find nowhere else.

How Rock Climbing is the Best Team Building (contact Tumblebees for your next corporate event!)

Over the past couple of decades, team building programs have helped thousands of businesses reach their goals. You may have heard or read about corporations that send groups of employees off to specialized training programs in the wilderness, but did you know that you can still achieve the same results right here at home? You don’t need to invest thousands of dollars in team building. As a local business based in Greensboro, the Ultimate Climbing Gym is available to help.

Taking Risks

The premise of team building is to encourage risk taking in an environment where team members have each others’ backs. Solving the problems set for the team requires working together, often in a physical way, where everyone must pitch in to reach a solution. This responsibility towards other team members encourages bonding and team reliance, which should continue once the team is back at work.

Climbing Teamwork

In a climbing gym, the teams are small. In fact, they consist of just two people: the climber and the belayer. The job of the climber is self-explanatory, but belaying is the job of keeping the climber from falling. The two must work together as a team to minimize risks in order to achieve a successful climb. As the climber ascends the wall, he must relay instructions to the person on the ground doing the belaying. Meanwhile, the belayer must pay attention to the climber and be alert for any problems that may arise. By the end of the session, belayer and climber will be proud of their teamwork and accomplishments.

Facilities

The Ultimate Climbing Gym is suitable for corporate groups and small businesses. We treat everyone alike. With advance notice our climbing space, which includes a 40-foot-tall lead climbing area and 16 top ropes, is available seven days a week. We set routes for all abilities and skill levels. In addition, we have a private room where your team can meet before or after the climbing experience to address concerns and discuss results while they’re still fresh in everyone’s minds.

Let us know what you want from your team building exercise and we’ll do our best to help you achieve it.