Do you remember climbing up on small garden walls and balancing on top of them? Well, it's a great skill to learn and you can start pretty early with introducing the concept. A good time to start is when your little champ has mastered the skill of jumping. All you need to get them started on balancing is to find a safe place and a wooden beam (or narrow surface). A great place to do this exercise is a beach with plenty of driftwood or the forest. Of course your backyard or a park is just as good, as long as there is plenty of space and soft ground (grass, sand, etc).

So find something your child can balance on - a wooden beam, a log, a row of bricks, etc. Get them to walk across with their hands stretched out for better balance. You may need to support them initially by lightly tapping under their elbow. You can very the exercise by asking them to do a heel/toe work or even walking backwards.

Enjoy!

-Stef

In the foreword to Margaret Sasse's book "Smart Start", Professor Frances Page Glascoe points out that kids in Gymbaroo sessions are mostly accompanied by their dads. This is obviously somewhat unusual and you'd be well aware of the "alone among women" phenomenon if you've done your fair share of parenting education / activity groups for kids. So this is great - it means Margaret has found a formula that works for dads! To celebrate this we've got agreement from the publisher of her book to post a mini series of exercises dads can do with their kids at home. The book is divided into 8 chapters (by age range) - so we will post one exercise from each group ... and hey there may be a prize in it for you at the end!

First up is a simple exercise for babies who can lift up their head (i.e. typically 3 months or older). It's called "Rocking" and what you do is get on the floor (ideally where you've got a soft surface - like carpet), sit up with your legs stretched out and put bubs in your thighs with his feet against your stomach. Hold onto his hands and rock backwards and up to the sitting position again. Do this a few times (not more than 10) - this exercise gives your little champ an opportunity to experience alternating between lying down and being upright. Great for developing balance and as preparation for later on when he tries to pull himself up to practice walking.

Enjoy,
Stef

For more exercises like these check out Margaret Sasse's book "Smart Start". It's definitely a good investment of 30 bucks and you can buy the book in most bookstores or online at Exisle Publishing.

A wee while ago we were given a book to review – “Smart Start” by Margaret Sassé who established the “GymbaROO” programme for early childhood development and learning which has been widely adopted and has become a global success story with over 100 Gymbaroo centres established worldwide . Sadly, Margaret passed away on the eve of her book being published on May 2nd this year. Her passion in life, to help children reach their full potential of physical and mental development through simple exercises is well captured in her book. Why is his relevant for Dads? Because statistics show that it’s mostly fathers who accompany children to Gymbaroo classes.