Lessons For Parents

Hi and welcome to the next in this chain of fantastic information for parents. And today I'm very honoured to have with me a very professional gymnast that has represented the United Kingdom. Welcome, Karen. I understand that now you're working with children. How did you come about that?

I began as a gymnast and was a high-level gymnast and then went on to become a coach and enjoyed it so much I went on to have my own gymnastics club in Woodford, in this local area, and realised that although elite gymnastics is very enjoyable and can be successful for those children, it's actually more important for every child to do some exercise. And we had a very large membership of toddlers coming into the gym every week and playing on the equipment and learning the benefits of exercise. of playing and agility, balance, coordination, everything that helped them develop in around school, towards the school and lessons and being able to learn.

Wow, that's amazing, Karen. So what would you say to the parents watching this and they're questioning at what age their toddler should join some kind of group?

Well, I recommend as soon As soon as toddlers can work— can walk, get them into a toddler's activity club. So the more equipment a toddler club has, it might be a gymnastics centre with all sorts of equipment laid out the whole time, it might be in a church hall where they get out climbing equipment. Get those kids out there climbing and learning to balance. throw things, coordinate. They discover through that play and they will increase their abilities so much. It will help them learn, it'll cover all sorts of problems you might think the children have and aid them with it.

Okay, so what kind of a problem would a parent notice that would benefit their child by going to some kind of a gymnast group? Or a playgroup where there's equipment there.

Things like if you see your— a very small toddler who's learning to walk, if they practice walking on straight lines, it increases their ability to focus and control. Dyspraxia, it's where the children aren't very good coordinating their bodies. Well, little tasks that we use in the gym of throwing and catching small pieces of hand apparatus, that helps overcome or improve that problem. Even dyslexia, where the children have a problem reading because letters are jump out in different orders. Well, if they practice small coordinating activities, that can help too.

Oh, that's amazing. Thank you so much for that, Karen. And what about the age of the children? When should a parent first join these kind of clubs?

There's not really a good time to take them, but when they are 3 or 4 years old, they then start to really be able to take instructions So they can go to classes at a gymnastics club and learn how to really work on the apparatus. They learn discipline as well at gymnastics classes, which they of course need when they go to school, so it helps with that too.

Yeah, and, and would you agree that it also helps with their social skills?

Definitely! Get the children out involved with other children and seeing What other children do, they learn by copying, so if other children can do a walk along a beam, the next child will copy them and want to do it just the same.

Right, and do they need expensive shoes or clothes to do this kind of stuff?

When the children start, they just go in t-shirts and tracksuit bottoms or shorts, obviously depending on the weather, and that is Fine for all levels until they, or if they become real gymnasts, then they might have to wear a leotard, but that's not what we are talking about. We are talking about healthy fitness exercise.

Brilliant, and what would you say to the parents out there who have got kids who have had a challenge with movement and don't actually enjoy gym work and have become couch potatoes? How could They encourage that child to move again.

If your children aren't doing enough exercise and you think they should be, and you'd like them to, get involved with them. Do exercise with them. Something I've developed are Fitter Kids exercises. Where you'll receive lesson plans, weekly lesson plans, to practice at home. You do it with them. You might want to get together with a couple of other friends and their children to do it together. It's much more fun and it works out cheaper for you, but the exercises are progressive. They're good for the children. You do it as well. It will help you too. You can keep track of the exercises with tick sheets and And we provide these for you so that you can tick them off. The children can see how they progress. We also have a free 14-day challenge where you do this with your children and you test the children at the beginning of this fortnight and they practice these— it's only a few exercises— for the next couple of weeks, and then at the end of the fortnight test them again. They will see the improvement, you'll see the improvement in yourself too. And that will hopefully encourage the children to have enjoyed it, to see the benefits, and want to do more.

Excellent. So how do the parents download that file for the tick sheet and get your exercises?

If they go to my website fitterkids.co.uk and follow the links to the free 14-day challenge, They can sign up for it and they will receive it all by email.

That's excellent. And what kind of exercises will it be? Will it be to do indoors or is it outdoors?

The actual exercises are all designed to be able to be done in your front room.

It's a good idea for people to warm up before they do exercise.

Absolutely. The lesson plans tell you exactly what to do. They begin with a warm-up and give you different ideas. You might like to go for a run outside with your child or children, or out on a bike, or it might be in the living room. Put on their favourite music and just dance around. That's a great way to warm the kids up. Then we have some exercises, and we'll tell you exactly what to do, how to do them. And in this 14-day challenge, It's a matter of timing them at the beginning of the fortnight and again once they've been practicing it nearly every day at the end of the fortnight, measuring and testing them. See how much they've improved.

Excellent, thank you very much for that, Karen. Well, Karen, I believe that you've been working with a team who have been training to do diving. How old are they?

The children in the diving club are from 6 years old up to 16, and they have been using my Fitter Kids lessons system for the last year and a half. They have all enrolled to the system. They receive their weekly lesson plan, which are full of progressive exercises that help them in the diving club. They are only doing half an hour diving lesson a week, but they are practicing my lessons at home, and the coaches are saying how much further the children have got on, how much they have progressed every week now because they've been practicing at home regularly. Practice regularly and it will help anyone to improve their fitness.

Oh, that's That's so brilliant, Karen, that you've got that feedback that's so positive from the coaches that are working with these kids. So for people out there that aren't doing any exercise at the moment, what should they do next?

Please, if you've got tiny toddlers, do take them to a local gym club. It's probably the easiest place. You can find them on the internet. Any child, if you take them to do more exercise, that is good for them. You are welcome to try my free 14-day challenge. Give me feedback, please let me know if your children enjoy it, or if you'd like information on any sort of exercise, I'm happy to help you and give you some sort of direction. of where to go and what to do. We are going to be producing these weekly lessons for everyone to do with their children at home. Please ask the question, we can help.

That's great. So do they just go onto your website, Karen, and you've got a contact?

Yes, there's a Contact Us form. Please just fill it in and send it back. Any feedback at all is welcome.

Oh, I'm sure that you'll be getting a lot of positive feedback from people out there who start to do your program, because as we all know, um, to have good health, we need to move our bodies and make it fun. And what you're offering sounds like great fun.

Thank you.

So thank you, Karen Layton, for coming here today and informing us about your 14-day free program. And I hope that the people listening will certainly give it a go Because I always believe that the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and until you do it, you just don't know what benefits it can give. So thank you very much for coming today.

Thank you, Heather.