Ever since Jenna was in the cruising stage she has tried to climb everything in sight. We spent a lot of time in her toddler stage at parks, as we lived in a semi-detached house with a small garden. When we moved to our present home it had a jungle gym and trees to climb! Yay! The only problem was she was still too small to navigate them successfully. So when she ventured out to the garden on her own for a climbing session, I would soon hear a cry for help! That was a time of learning to be very patient for me!! Thank goodness she mastered them quickly :-)
We've always believed that in the early years exposure to different activities is the best way to discover a child's interest and talents. If Jenna has expressed an interest in something we've tried our best to give her the opportunity to try it out-hence the ballet lessons.
When she turned four I enquired about gymnastics in our area. The very encouraging gymnastics teacher said we'd have to wait a year, as she was too young. But he encouraged us to hang ropes and climbing ladders around our garden to encourage her physical development. So we did just that. And Jenna has spent many happy hours performing acrobatic tricks on the ropes, ladders and trees since then!
A few weeks ago a place became open at the gymnastics classes and since then Jen has been loving it! The class is run by the instructors who are aided by young gymnasts from the older class. They use all types of gymnastics equipment like the balance beam, spring board and parallel bars. The children are grouped together in abilities and they experience each apparatus in stations. It has been such fun to see her learning this new skill.
Last week-end she took part in her first competition for her BLUE BADGE. Daddy got to watch her for the first time-which is always special for Jen.
The warm up session-she looks so cute in her little leotard!
Waiting excitedly for her turn. She was so wriggly I could tell it was a mixture of nerves and excitement. Precious girl!
About to mount the parallel bars. Salute!
And there she is-doing one of her favourite things-hanging upside down!!!
A little bit of mat work and then onto the beam.
Salute! Can you see how she curls her hands over, like a ballerina? So cute! She was taught this week, by the older girls how to make a gymnast's salute. (I'm going to miss that cute little ballerina one though!)
Mounting the beam.....
Balancing along-brave girl-that beam's about the same height as her!
And ready to dismount...
Ta da!
A very happy little girl receives her first badge. She's been telling everyone that she had her first gymnastics competition and got her first badge-even the neighbours as we meet them in the road!
