THE EASTER HOLIDAYS ARE COMING!
Our Easter Holidays run from Friday 29th March - Thursday 11th April inclusive. Regular classes will not run during this period, optional member benefit classes for all ages run across the two weeks and are complementary. 

EASTER CAMPS
Get ready for awesome gymnastics, arts and crafts, STEM activities, games and more! For ages 3 to 12 years. 
2nd - 5th April: 
Madhatters Tea Party (3-8 years) 10:00-13:00 (Tuesday - Friday)
Handstand to Handspring Workshop (5-12 years) 14:00-17:00 (Tuesday - Thursday ONLY)
8th - 11th April: 
Animal Kingdom (3-8 years) 10:00-13:00 
Cartwheels to Aerials (5-12 years) 14:00-17:00

BOOK ONLINE HERE

Childcare vouchers and tax free childcare accepted via email to harpenden@thelittlegym.co.uk

HOW CAN THE LITTLE GYM SUPPORT READING READINESS

At The Little Gym we recognise the benefit of a holistic approach to your child's development and how learning skills in the gym can benefit your little ones in nursery, school and beyond. In January, our monthly focus is 'Strong Bodies and Strong Minds' and our preschool and parent child classes will be learning all about reading readiness and how The Little Gym can support this development. Before our children are able to read, they must be physically ready. The Little Gym can support reading readiness in several ways:

1. Gymnastics involves movement that enhances fine and gross motor skills, which contributes to the development of the muscles needed for tasks like writing, manipulating books and turning the pages. 
2. Activities around the gym improve balance and coordination, which provide the building blocks for proper posture and the ability to sit comfortably for reading. On top of this, as our little ones strengthen their core muscles, they are more stable in their chair and ready to read. 
3. The Little Gym helps children to develop their proprioceptive sense which is how we understand our bodies in space. This is crucial for understanding directional concepts like left, right, up, down, etc. This spatial awareness is fundamental for comprehending words and sentences on a page. We also perform tasks like climbing, crawling, to monkey jumps and cartwheels that cross the bodies midline. This same action is needed to cross from left to right on the page when reading. 
4. Participating in gymnastics activities can enhance cognitive skills such as attention, memory, and problem-solving, which are vital for learning to read and understand written language. We also help the children to follow instructions and how to focus which is essential when following the words on the page.
5. Our lessons help to develop the language needed for reading through creative themes, imaginative play and encouraging singing and rhyme. 

The programme at The Little Gym is expertly designed to build these base skills to give your little one the foundation needed for higher learning. We can clearly see that overall in order to learn to read, we must first have a well developed sensory system, the ability to cross our midline, a strong core and understand the idea of left, right and directional movement. When adding the language, motor skill development and learning through play, we can be assured that The Little Gym is the best place to supercharge your little one's reading readiness.