The Kulas: Our Mighty Tumbler

Just as ice skating lessons came to an end, an opening came up for Misha in the Mighty Tumblers gymnastics class for three- to six-year-olds! (We've been on the waiting list for months.) It's wonderful for kids. It gets them moving, paying attention, focusing, laughing, following directions, everything - it's better than school!

They start out with the whole group, maybe 20 or so kids, doing, for example, bean bag activities with Teacher Dave. Put the bean bag on your head! Put the bean bag on your knee and balance! Put it on the floor! Jump over it! And so on, up to sitting down with the bean bag between your feet, then leaning back to catapult the bean bag backwards. They throw and catch, then they toss their bean bags into the center basket by color. Then they split into three smaller groups of about 8 each and go off to different obstacle courses. The teacher runs through what they do quickly at each station, then off the kids would go.

The first time Misha went, he was not nearly as confident as the other kids. A few times he got lost in what to do, got discouraged, and came running tearfully to us on the sidelines. But each time he decided to give it another go, and he had a lot of fun. Tonight was his second time, and he was far more confident in what to do and he really enjoyed himself. The obstacle courses were neat - for example, climbing a little ladder to hang on a bar, swinging, and dropping to the ground; bouncing on a trampoline; walking on a beam with help; doing a handstand (for a milisecond); doing a sommersault; doing a backward roll on a wedge; doing a half cartwheel over a stuffed block; putting hands down while walking feet vertically up a wall mat; jumping over a series of "noodles;" hula hooping. Every 10 minutes or so, they switch to a new obstacle course.

At the end, the group comes together again for some practice throwing and catching light scarves or a game of Simon Says. Tonight I was laughing out loud as the kids tried most unsuccessfully to figure out when to follow the order and when not to!

Here are a few videos of him. Some handstands ...

And following the obstacle course ...