Ricky has a weekly tumbling class that he adores. Yesterday I took my camera along to catch a few of his tumbling moments. While we were waiting for class to start, we were in the parents’ area and Ricky was just singing the ABCs over and over and over. Finally, one other kid, probably 5 said, “Stop singing that song! Mom, make him stop singing that song!” I guess the 10th time was a little too much, but he was being good, so I just let him keep going.
Ricky is in the Caterpillar Class–the youngest class they have. There are usually 3 students to the one teacher (yesterday there were only 2 kids) and since Ricky sometimes darts off to do something he finds more interesting, I stay on the floor and help him focus (his focus has improved greatly though since we started the classes). The class is learning all sorts of things from different kinds of front rolls, back rolls, cart wheels, handstands, trampoline jumps, and, Ricky’s favorite, flips and rope swinging into the pit.
Here is his teacher Vanessa helping him do a back bend–Ricky doesn’t like taking his head off the floor for back bends or hand stands. They also work on balancing and generally following instructions.
Here is Ricky on the small warm-up trampoline. He loves to jump, although he doesn’t have a lot of control with it yet. He just sorts of bounces all over, where ever the trampoline takes him is fine by him.
And the PIT . . . this is where Ricky is often taking off to when he loses his focus. It is a big pit full of foam squares and a trampoline base. He loves jumping in and getting buried in the foam. This picture is him crossing from one side to the other. His teacher says it is actually very difficult and Ricky was sweating when he finished.
Here is Ricky in the pit after doing a front roll off the edge. The goal is to someday be able to flip into the pit without touching the edge at all.
And, finally the rope. In the older classes, they climb the rope– in the little class, they swing on it. Usually, Ricky immediately drops off once he gets over the pit, but yesterday he held on for a couple of swings. He loves the rope, even though his face here looks contrary. I think he is just trying to hold on tight and is losing his grip.
