Choo Choo!

We are ready for Trains theme at Jnr Gym Kids!

Our under 5’s will use the choo choo rhythm of our fun Trains Theme to bring focus to more coordinated arms & legs.

Using opposite sides of our body at the same time, or Cross Patterning, is a powerful way to wire up the two sides of the brain body connection and create not only fluent motion, but whole brain thinking – very clever stuff!

An important part of development, cross patterning can be quite tricky for little brains.

Put simply, when we move the opposite side of our body at the same time both sides of our brain fire up! The more the two halves of our brain are active, the more whole brain thinking we can employ for learning & growing! Which is why we practice through purposeful play!

You may hear your Jnr Gym Kids coach talk about laterality all the time in the gym? This just means we have two sides and need to practice using them in all sorts of ways.  So here is another thing to think about…

Humans are contralateral creatures – meaning the left half of our brain controls the right side of our body & vice versa.  It’s how we move the most fluently & efficiently and also how we think the most fluently & efficiently.

Nature has a few developmental milestones along the way to help make this work. Crawling is our first big one, but think also, climbing, focused stepping, running, skipping (all opposite arms and legs working in a fluent coordinated way to get us moving).

AND while we are practicing it all the time, we have an entire program for it at Jnr Gym Kids in choo choo choo choo TRAINS!!!

We’ll be using shakers to help make the cross patterning fun! We will be slow trains chugging up the hill, then speeding up arms for superfast speedy trains coming back down the hill.

We will crawl like a cargo train (with bean bag on back) on the narrow beam and will practice throwing at our train targets with the opposite arm to our stepping leg.  We will also focus on just our legs with choo choo alternate leg lifts while hanging on the bar.

Our focus shape for our Jnr Gym Kids during this theme is front support, which incidentally makes a great bridge for trains to travel under!

“Make a bridge with hands and feet, hands and feet, hands and feet
Make a bridge with hands and feet…. Front support!”

Thanks for moving with us!