How is everyone holding up out there? My family has been doing our part in flattening the curve and haven’t ventured farther than our woods in days. We’re trying to adjust to this new reality while settling into a healthy, nourishing rhythm. It is a challenge for us. We’re a busy, always on the go type of family and we’re all jumping out of our skin just a little. Frustration, boredom, pent up energy, and mood swings have been regular parts of the past few days. However, there is also more snuggling, creativity, free play outside, squirrel watching, reading stories, and baking! And somewhere in between those extremes, there is far too much screen time. It’s one of the harsh realities of the situation! Parents still have to work and kids are home all day. If this were a real vacation with no work to be done, I could spend more of my day guiding them into activities and avoiding the screen time, but that just isn’t the current situation. I’m sure some of you are experiencing the same, so our ACM crew has been working hard on developing online programming for our community that will provide an engaging experience during that screen time. Hopefully it will also inspire some self directed, non-screen time projects along with healthy movement. Perhaps it can buy you some time to breathe, work, exercise (maybe with them if you’re brave enough), or have a glass of wine too early in the day. ;)
We have an amazing group of people working at ACM and we are doing everything we can to make sure that we can continue to support them in the event of an extended shut down. In turn, they are doing an amazing job of supporting us by shooting videos on gymnastics instruction along with a variety of videos on crafting, juggling, cooking, Spanish, music and more. On our public Facebook page you will find videos for your kids that we posted today. Currently, we have three videos available: handstand tutorial, juggling instruction, and a bird feeder craft. For all of our customers who are enrolled for the spring session, we are also putting together a new Facebook group for social learning. This is where we will post the majority of our videos. We will continue to post new videos each day.
For the most part, these are videos your children can follow independently. Some of the craft videos may need supervision for one or two steps, but can still mostly be done without supervision. In the gymnastics videos, we stick to gymnastics that can be done safely at home and stress that the kids choose a safe location to follow along. The most common injury for kids doing gymnastics at home is a broken toe from kicking furniture, so make sure they find somewhere with enough space. Outside in the sun is an awesome option! There are also strength and flexibility components in the videos. Our goal is that all of our gymnasts come back to the gym stronger, more flexible, and with a better understanding of technique so that they are ready to take off learning harder skills. These are the areas that we can never spend enough time on in the gym, so let’s take advantage of this extra time now!
We will post a link to the new Facebook social learning group on Wednesday with instructions on how to join. For now, follow our public Facebook page here:
https://www.facebook.com/ashevillecommunitymovement/
More to come. Stay well out there.