"Gymagics"

Peyton goes to gymnastics, or as he calls it - gymagics - on Thursday evenings at Rolly Pollies. Normally, I just pick him up from daycare, we grab a quick dinner, and then I take him to gymnastics. However, I've been having pretty bad back pain lately, and Wednesday night/Thursday morning I had some of the worst pain that I have experienced so far. So, Kyle came to gymnastics with us so that he could help Peyton with the things that required lifting him up. Peyton was excited to have both of us there with him. I took the opportunity to bring the camera and take a million pictures of Peyton having fun.

The class starts out with the kids sitting in a circle. They sing a song that goes like this: Friends, friends, 1-2-3, all my friends are here with me. Peyton is my friend and Whoever is my friend and Whoever is my friend..... They go around the circle saying everyone's name. They they sing Where is Thumbkin, except they say Where is Rolly? Where is Polly?... Finally, they sing The More We Get Together and do sign language to the song. That is what they're doing in the picture below.

Next, the kids play with the parachute. They sing Ring Around the Rosie while they play.

Each week, they have about seven or eight different stations set up for the kids to do different activities. After the parachute, their teacher, Miss Lindy goes around to each station and explains what the kids are supposed to do on each apparatus. It's up to the parents to help their own children at each station. There are three teachers who walk around and assist with different things. This week, we had the following activities:

They had to climb into and out of this doughnut shaped obstacle and then do a forward roll down the inclined mat at the end. Peyton is getting better at his forward rolls, but usually goes sideways while doing them, so we'll keep working on it.

The tumble track is one of Peyton's favorite things. It's open each week. This week there were some noodles on the track that the kids had to jump over on their way down the track.

At the end of the tumble track, the kids can jump into this huge pit filled with foam blocks. There is a rope swing, a rope wall to climb, and some balls to toss inside the pit.

There are also the rings, which Peyton is really good at. He can hold himself up on them and swing for a good period of time. He has excellent upper body strength.

This was a balance beam-type of activity. The kids had to walk along it and then jump over the strings that were wrapped around it. Peyton is good at these types of things too.

They also had the trapeze set up this week. This was the first time that this activity was available. Peyton again did a good job at hanging from the bar and swinging back and forth.

This week was the first that we attempted a backward roll. Peyton did that much easier than he did a forward roll.

Another of Peyton's favorites is this climbing structure.

He's surprisingly good at balance beams.

He's also pretty good at climbing the rock wall. He tries to do everything with his arms though. He doesn't really get that he should step up with his feet first and then reach higher to pull himself up with his arms. He mostly just reaches up with his hands and then drags the rest of his body with him. He can get pretty high on the wall though. He just makes me nervous that he's going to fall off.

Here's Peyton on the official balance beam. It's only 4 inches wide. He can walk all the way across it all by himself without falling off.

They love balance beams, I guess. Here is another one that was set up with bean bags on it. The kids were supposed to pick up the bean bags as they walked across the beam and then drop them in the bucket at the end of the beam. This was one of Peyton's favorite activities this week.

The majority of the 45 minute class is spent doing those stations. There were a few more that I didn't include pictures of. It was hard to get good pictures that weren't blurry because Peyton is constantly moving. The kids gather back in the circle to do I'm a Little Teapot. When the song says "Tip me over and pour me out" the kids do this:

Next, we do Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush with a hula hoop.

Next, the kids get to play in a bounce house. This is probably Peyton's most favorite part of the class each week. He bounces and there is a slide in the house that all of the kids love. They go down it so fast.

Even Kyle wanted to get in on the jumping and sliding action.

To end the class, the kids gather in a circle again. They sing Hickory Dickory Dock. When the "mouse ran up the clock" the parents lift the kids upside down and swing them back and forth which each tick of the clock. Luckily, Miss Lindy normally does this with Peyton because it is so tough for me to lift him up being pregnant. Even though Kyle was there, she still did it with Peyton. He squeals with delight each time he goes upside down.

The class wraps up with a song similar to the opening one, except that this one goes like this: Bye bye Peyton. Bye bye Whoever... We hope you had fun. This was week 4 of 9 of the gymnastics classes. I think Peyton will want to continue with more classes. They are a great way for him to get some of his energy out. I know I'm tired when we get home each week!