I enrolled Jonah and Micah in Parkour this year for the first time. Parkour is doing gymnastics over obstacles. They are both really flexible, and enjoy doing tricks on trampolines, challenging themselves while swinging on rope swings in the yard, and climbing trees, so I thought it would be the perfect activity for them to enhance and refine their climbing, running, and jumping abilities!
They met once a week from October to April with 10 other kids in their group at the gymnastics/dance studio. It was the perfect time: on Wednesdays at 5:30, and they had scouts during the schoolyear on Wednesdays from 4:15 to 5:15. So they would walk across the street from the school to the church to have scouts, then when scouts was over, they would walk across another street to get from the church to the dance studio.
They really liked their dance teacher, and having the gymnastics practice once a week. Because this was their first year, and most of the kids in their class had done it previous years, they struggled because they felt like they weren't as good as their classmates. But I could see how they improved over the year with their somersaults and cartwheels and headstands. It was a positive environment for them, and they weren't in a competitive setting, so I think it was very beneficial for them.
The dance & gymnastics recital was the first weekend in May. The boys were pretty nervous, but we had two practices that week to get ready for the performance in the high school gym, and I think that helped prepare them better. The Parkour outfits this year were black Nike shorts & and orange Nike jacket. They could wear a white or black t-shirt underneath. Jonah chose white, and Micah chose black so that they looked a little different from each other:
These are their professional individual photos:
The song they performed to was "We Will Rock You". At the beginning, they start in one pose, and do some flips and jumps (Jonah & Micah are on the floor in between all the blue mats):
Then they moved the mats, and got into line to do the row-by-row obstacle course routines of jumping and flipping over things. My favorite part was at the end when they tried to do headstands on the individual mats in front of the audience!
Even though it was an expensive sport to participate in ($450 for each boy for the whole year), I'm going to enroll them in it for one more year, because I think it's worth it for them--they will continue to improve, and have greater motor skills and more confidence in themselves. I loved watching them! I was so proud of them for participating this year and performing in the recital!
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