SHARED by: Melissa van Wijk, Director of Tiny Tot Fitness and Mini Movers

This Fall, Gymtime is introducing Mini Movers, a new class for our tiniest tots ages 6 – 10 months. Upon arrival, you and your baby can explore the equipment and props to help one can ease into the new environment and get acclimated. After a few minutes of exploration, we’ll gather in the center for Circle Time where we’ll do a greeting with puppets, check in to see how everyone is doing, sing songs, work with instruments and explore engaging manipulatives like scarves and ribbons. We will also work with simple movement and sensory activities as a group that you will build on during the rest of class and at home. 

Our set-up will be ‘in the round’ with the Circle Time area surrounded by various play stations to develop movement skills and stimulate baby’s senses. At this age, children are moving their bodies quite a lot, but are not necessarily traveling so much just yet. A circle set up draws baby’s attention to various nearby opportunities while keeping everyone close together for socialization. The stations will get progressively more challenging as the children travel more, crawl, and learn to climb. 

The play stations will facilitate all-important ‘Tummy Time’ with play mats and toys that keep baby happy in the prone position – even if Tummy Time is not your child’s favorite activity. There will be a music station to further explore the instruments we used during Circle Time to stimulate auditory engagement and processing. Using moving light displays you can engage baby’s vision, and by playing with differently textured balls, toys, and disks you challenge their tactile processing. Larger equipment, balls, ramps, and uneven surfaces will be on-hand to spark the vestibular system (inner-ear balance) and proprioception (sense of the body parts relationships to one another). Of course no class is complete without bubbles and a closing Circle Time where we’ll enjoy traveling circle ‘dances’ and soothing activities to calm baby. 

Overall the goal will be to enable each child to develop their bodies, gross motor skills, and early sensory processing as holistically as possible to build a solid foundation for all future development. 

Learn more about Mini Movers and sign-up today!