By Tom Resing
My connection with The Little Gym started a little more than 7 years ago, but my connection with the principles that guide what we do at The Little Gym go back much farther than that. When I was a little boy, my mother’s first answer to behavior problems was often a semi-joking, “Tom, why don’t you go run around the block.” Often, it was in response to something I did that made my little brother cry or so other small indiscretion. Another common refrain was, “Tom, you’re acting like a 4 year old.” This one I remember more as I got older and I heard it said to the grand children always found running around my mother’s house.
Together those two parenting techniques represent some principles that I often see reflected in the learning and business strategies put in place at The Little Gym. And now, I can see them reflected in our new 3 Dimensional Learning statements. You see, the new Learning Units in our curriculum are more than just a way to group weekly lesson plans into a 3-5 week grouping. The Learning Units reflect a new exposure of the way we’ve always gone about teaching at The Little Gym.
Get Moving is a DIMENSION OF LEARNING. “Go run around the block” was my mom’s way of saying that I clearly needed some physical activity. She knew that my behavior was often reflective of a need. And when she commanded me to Get Moving, what she saw was a need for physical activity. All of us need it, and some of us crave it. When I don’t Get Moving, even today, my body gets restless. I often hear parents say, “She’s going to sleep well tonight” after a particularly strong effort by their son or daughter in a class. I believe physical activity is the number one reason parents come to us every day to help their children.
Citizen Kid is another dimension of learning that we are getting better about expressing in our programs. When my Mom told my oldest niece that she was “acting like a 3 year old,” she said it in a self-mocking way. She wasn’t berating the child, she was doing something that The Little Gym Curriculum Director Randy McCoy calls “embracing the spirit of the child.” To my mom’s eye, some things that seem strange to see a little person do are really what being a child is all about. When you son or daughter negotiates the line of eager 2 year olds trying to get on to the air track to jump, she is learning to play well with others. The occasional 2 year old may get knocked down on each individual child’s path to being a Citizen Kid, but the important part is that we are social animals. Each of us is trying to be a productive part of society and the way that young children learn that is really fascinating to me.
And clearly Brain Boost is the dimension of learning that most closely associates with my day to day activities as a software engineer. While my problem solving activities are computer oriented, motor skills development classes present other challenges. When swinging across a gap between two foam blocks, which way should the hands grip the bar? Is it easier to start a cartwheel with the left hand and left foot or a different combination? Challenges in the gym don’t just present physical learning opportunities, but also offer the opportunity to grown young minds in a different way than we learn with books and computers.
In a way, I’m jealous. I love working as a computer consultant and helping my wife with this great children’s business we are taking part in. But thinking back to my childhood and how much fun I had, just being a kid, I can’t help wanting to be a part of that even now. And that’s something our instructors get to do every day.
Thank you for letting us play a small part in your child’s physical, social and intellectual development. And I hope you are looking forward to lots of 3 dimensional learning.
-Tom