Tag: tumbling

Categories
4 years and beyond

Try It, You Might Like It!

Saturday the girls told us they wanted to go rock climbing and we decided to do it on Sunday. The local rock climbing place is now closed so we had to travel to Penrith, down the mountain. Both girls were excited and the rock climbing was something both kids wanted to do and kept pestering us about it. So of course we thought lets give it a go.

We drove 45mins down the mountain and had lunch first around the corner from the centre, then off to the rock climbing place. We arrive and the girls decide they don’t want to do it. I should have known this would be the case. I have tried three times now to get them to do tumbling like they asked and there were hysterics, screams and yelling. I tried to take them to soccer for toddlers as they said they wanted to do it, and the same hysterics happened.

I had to rearrange the girls swimming lesson for Saturday morning instead of Friday morning due to a specialist appointment for one of the girls and they put on quite a show, needless to say daddy was not impressed. The girls screamed, cried and yelled and just carried on and were damn right rude. Daddy had to leave as they were mucking up so badly. I was looking forward to hearing the stories about how well the girls swam and how impressed daddy was as he is normally at work when the twins have their lessons. This tantrum was due to not having the same instructor. I did explain that the girls would have a different one and they knew this, so not sure why it was such a problem.

I just don’t understand why they ask to do something and then refuse to join in and at least give it a go. We were there to help them and there would have been an instructor to help. At the rock climbing centre there are safety harnesses and all padded floor and mats, so no fear that you would hurt yourself.   It is not just the rock climbing but also the tumbling and soccer that has annoyed me. You spend the time, organise to go try out something and your kids create such a commotion you have to leave.

Maybe they are not ready for any group sport? Would starting Kindy at big school next year help this issue? Do your kids create issues when you take them to try out an activity or sport? I don’t want to spend money on something they will not do or are not interested in, hence getting the twins to try things out.

Do you have ways that might encourage the girls to at least try it. I am sure if they gave things a go they would enjoy it.  I am also not the type of parent that is pushing them to do something in particular. If they take a shine to something and are good at it, we will try and give it a go. Just frustrates me like hell that they don’t even try it. Like Gabba Gabba say, “Try it, You might like it!”

Why not continue the discussion on our Twitter or Facebook pages.

Categories
3 years and beyond

Testing Tumbling

Today we are off to a free tumbling clinic for the kids.  I am keen to see if the girls like it, and when we have more money maybe we can have them go. Not energised to get out of the house as it looks cold and is very windy. Current temperature is:

  • Current temp: 5.4°C
  • Feels like: 0.4°C
  • Humidity: 93%
  • Rainfall since 9am: 13.8mm
  • Wind: W 32km/h
  • Wind gusts: 50km/h

So as you can see being inside is much more sensible, however it is good for the kids to run around and be active. After the tumbling we are off to see Opa and Nana, who are now local for a couple of months. The girls were so happy to see Nana they asked her to fix four toys on Monday, it was lucky she was able to do that. Thanks Nana (Mum)

What are you all doing today? Have you participated in any school holiday fun?

Here are some links that might help with activities during school holidays (Some links might be more for Sydney, however you can apply the same to your city):

Hope you are having fun and send in your ideas for keeping active these school holidays. Send in your comments.

Update: The girls were not keen on tumbling to my utter dissapointment. Both girls do the same things that tumbling offered, however when presented with it, they just stared and looked pained at the instructors. Maybe when they are older. The twins have an excellent sense of balance and Lillian needs more exercise for her foot, so it would have been a good idea. Glad it was a free lesson today and we did not pay for it. If they had liked it we might have seen what we could have organised. Might address it again next year. What a pity, I think I was more excited about it than the kids were.

Categories
3 years and beyond Katoomba Hospital Swimming lessons

The extreme cost of activities for kids

Why is it that extra activities for kids are so expensive, swimming, tumbling, gym, dancing and much more. I would like to have the girls continue with their swimming lessons and also to be able to do tumbling lessons. This is not going to happen due to the cost.  Just to give you an example of the cost:

  • Swimming lessons for 10 weeks ( a school term) – $140
  • Tumbling lessons for 10 weeks ( a school term) –  $125 plus $32.50 annual gymnastic NSW membership fee

The price above for each activity is for 1 child. So as I have 2 children, I would need to double it. So the costs would be:

  • Swimming lessons for 10 weeks ( a school term) – $280.00
  • Tumbling lessons for 10 weeks ( a school term) –  $315.00

My question is, how does the average family give their children exposure to these sort of activities? With the girls going to pre-school 3 days per week, there is no way we will be able to cough up extra money for anything else. Last year we were able to give the girls about 3 sets of swimming lessons, but I don’t think that will happen this year.

Lillian turns her left foot in a bit when she walks and trips over more, especially when she is tried. Nothing that strengthening the ankle or more sports would help. To do the sports and training you have to pay. I cannot just put one child into sport, I would like to put both in for the experience as well. The physiotherapist at Katoomba Hospital said tumbling classes would really help Lillian, but how do I do this when they are so expensive.

One of my other questions is why is the council pool charging so much to teach kids and babies to swim. This is a skill that can save your life, swimming is essential in Australia as we are surrounded by water and nearly everyone has a pool, goes to the pool or the beach. I believe that swimming allows you to have the ability to exercise, be safe and to participate in a great lifestyle.  Why does the council charge so much? Why cannot the fee be a token to the centre, say $20 or $50 for swimming for your children to learn. It should not be $280 to teach your kids to swim for only 10 weeks. Then after the first 10 weeks you have to pay it all again. How many school terms are there in Australia, well there is 4 terms per year. So that would mean that I would need to pay Katoomba Pool, $1120.00 for a year of tutuion for swimming lessons.

Learning to swim should be free or nearly free. From my conversations in the Blue Mountains, NSW, there are a lot of people and kids that don’t know how to swim. What happens when these kids go to their swimming carnival at school? Is it then the schools job to teach kids to swim? Do schools have a learn to swim programme? I am not sure and have not found out, so if someone knows please let me know.

I grew up in North Queensland, Hervey Bay to be precise and I swam at a young age. We were close to a beach at all times, always on a boat and had to swim.  I think everyone has a right to save their lives and others by knowing how to swim. I love swimming and really enjoy it, I cannot imagine not knowing how.

So this year, I think we will take the kids swimming ourselves and teach them swimming techniques. We also cannot take them to tumbling classes no matter how much I would hope to do it. Julia and Lillian’s balance and ability are so great, that I would like to build on it, and have them do something active that is also healthy. For a society that is worried about weight gain, overweight and obese kids they are definitely not doing anything to help families with easily accessible activities.

Why is it now a matter of how much money you have, if you can learn to swim or not. Money is not the issue, it is making sure that the government/council makes this available at all levels. Learning to swim is something everyone needs to know how to do, rich or poor.

Do you have the same concerns over costs for children’s activities? Do we need to get like minded people together to see if we can lower costs? Should we have an online petition for the council to do something about this? Let me know your thoughts.