WAG What do you do in mommy & me?

[Sari]

I have to fill in for an absent coach in several mommy & me classes next week. Kids are going to be anywhere from 12 months to 2 years old. I've never been exposed to that age range before.

Anyone know or remember from experience what is typically done in this type of class? I imagine a lot of jumping, balancing, singing?
I do have an assistant coach available, if that's a factor.

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Ours open with a welcome song. They seem to do a kind of 'obstacle course' of cheese wedges and soft stuff, and go across a beam with hands held and swing on a special baby bar (a low plastic thing) with helpers. At that age a parent stays with them. Then they have a 'goodbye' song to finish. Good luck with the class!

 

[COz]

Watch an episode of Sesame Street then look at YouTube for videos on herding cats to get in the right frame of mind
Expect it to be fairly chaotic, but the parents will wrangle their own kids. If one of them does a runner, the appropriate parent will go fetch them back.
Don't expect that the kids will actually make any serious attempt to follow your instructions.

Get them in a circle to start. Introduce yourself.
Go around the circle with the parents getting their kids to wave and say "Hi Sari!" So at least the parents might remember your name.
Get them to practice some shapes "rocket shape" "star shape" don't expect much.
Jumping on the spot. Sitting in tuck shape.

Have an obstacle course circuit thing set up before hand. Get assistant coach to demonstrate the circuit. You can talk her through each bit.
Things like walking along a floor beam (parents will help their kids), rolling down a wedge sideways, jumping between a few hoops on the floor, jump off a block on a mini tramp to a crash mat etc.
Get them to start wherever on the circuit. Help where appropriate. Keep an eye out for parents with more than one kid. They'll need an extra hand.
Let them go around this for a while.

Round them up onto the floor in a circle again. Get them to do some really simple stretches, like pike on the floor, touching knees then toes. Then sit in straddle. That's about it.

Some kind of coordination thing, like everyone holds a bean bag and they balance it on the back of a hand outstretched, balance it on a knee (trying to stand on one leg, note that they won't be able to do this, but the parents may try) balance beanbag on their head, turn on the spot with it on their head.
Avoid balls unless you want to spend all the time with the kids chasing them across the floor...

Find out if they give out stamps on the hand, or stickers at the end of class. The kids will get very upset if they're used to getting these and they're not on offer
Ask the assistant coach what comes next, they'll help.

Good luck.

 

[Faith]

Ours ran like this:

Circle- warm up. Which was a bit of jumping, a bit of flapping butterfly wings, a few nursery rhymes.

Free time- kids just ran about with parents jumping off stuff and swinging. The only structure was "stations" manned by coaches, they'd call the kids over one and a time and do a walk along the high beam, or a swing on bars, or roll down a cheese wedge.

All in the middle for "sit ups" aka "row your boat".

Stickers, home.

 

[Dr Maleficent]

Ours ran like this:

Free time- kids just ran about with parents jumping off stuff and swinging. .

Now I feel hard done by- at our gym the parents weren't allowed to jump off stuff and swing.

 

[COz]

Oh, yeah, we started with 10 minutes of kids running around the gym free play too.

We did other stuff like listen to the coach sing a song (no, I'm not joining in there), bang sticks together and know what day of the week it was too. But I'm assuming a fill in coach doesn't have the technical know-how to do the fancy stuff like that... or whatever excuse you can come up with to get out of learning the welcome or goodbye song that is prevalent at your gym.

 

[duyetanh]

Ah yes. I remember my dd's first mommy and me class all too well. I ripped my toenail off from the beam, knocked the wind out of myself on bars from turning too quickly whilst helping my child...and had the manager chasing me down after to sign a liability release form for ME....

 

[Sari]

Oh, yeah, we started with 10 minutes of kids running around the gym free play too.

We did other stuff like listen to the coach sing a song (no, I'm not joining in there), bang sticks together and know what day of the week it was too. But I'm assuming a fill in coach doesn't have the technical know-how to do the fancy stuff like that... or whatever excuse you can come up with to get out of learning the welcome or goodbye song that is prevalent at your gym.

Oh gosh, I know the goodbye song they do (from when I did mommy & me, it gets stuck in your head that much), but I hate singing in front of people with a vengeance! I think I'll make the assistant coach do most of the singing, she's a mom and works in daycare, haha.

Thanks for all of the ideas! They calm my mind! I'm a perfectionist by nature and don't want to let anyone down.

 

[Sari]

Ah yes. I remember my dd's first mommy and me class all too well. I ripped my toenail off from the beam, knocked the wind out of myself on bars from turning too quickly whilst helping my child...and had the manager chasing me down after to sign a liability release form for ME....

Hahahaha wonderful memory! I'm hoping for no injured parents!
Gonna track down the first aid kit just in case.