Catching Up on Fit Kids

ABS Fit Kids Club

May 16th, 18th and 23rd

"Catching Up"

Its been awhile since I've gotten a chance to update this. So I'm going to do a quick game of catch up starting with last Monday, May 16th Fit Kids session. Due to the dip in temperature we stayed indoors and did different aerobic activities. One of them was African Dancing. Which was a lot of fun. The kids had a good time doing some of the dance moves that we where asked to perform. A lot of them especially loved the African dance music I put on before we even started our workout video. The beat that we were listening to it made it incredible hard not to move too!!

Once that was finish we changed our attention towards learning some Thai Chi. I felt it was important to find an activity that was going to be lead by a man. Since all of our videos, instructors and volunteer up to this point in the session have all been females. I wanted to represent the male population of Fit Kids. Let me tell you I had a hard time finding a yoga video or a pilates video lead by a male that was wearing something beyond a speedo! Knowing the age range of the kiddos with in the club I couldn't see many of them getting beyond the outfit and ever being able to listen to the actual directions. So I went with Thai Chi as another form of relaxation instead of yoga. 

Thai Chi wasn't as big of a hit as the African Dancing. I think a huge part of it had to do with the instructional video itself. It wasn't fast enough to keep everyone entertained and so I lost them about 20 minutes into the video. 

At that point it seemed like a good time to stop and move on to something else. Which happen to be playing on the playground. Despite the cold I felt everyone needed to be outside for the last 15 minutes of the club. Everyone enjoyed playing on the structure. Especially the bigger kids since they don't often get the chance to spend a lot of time on that playground. 

On Wednesday- We went up to the mountain for our normal Wednesday routine. We all worked on pacing ourself better on the trail by doing some running mixed in with the walking. The trail route we took was a shorter one which allowed us the ability to stall a bit when we came to the top of Mile Long Field. 

While walking through the field a majority of us started to sing "The hills are alive with the sound of music!" followed by cartwheels, somersaults and rolling down the hill. Andrea, myself, Jenifer and Dana (our parents volunteer) had a lot of "look at me" shouted at us. As kids attempted to do different things to progress themselves down to the bottom. 

There is something about that field that makes all of our inner child come out. You can't help but feel incredible joyful when you step into it and see the beautiful world before you! 

It was a great hike and one kiddo yelled as he ran down a trail called Home Again "its just like a roller coaster" He liked it so much he went back up the trail and did it all over again!

What was also great was feeling a great level of trust in our older kiddos. Our community is lucky to have some wonderful kids who have begun to be great leaders in the club. These individuals paces are faster than some of the younger ones (and some of us adults) and they have been wonderful at waiting at places were travels converge with others. Keeping count of any of the younger kids that have fallen into their group and being proactive in making sure everyone is acting as they should and respecting the environment we are traveling through. I'm extremely happy to see these individuals step up into these leadership roles. Especially since some of them might not general get the chance. That to me has been really wonderful!

Today- was golf day!! My husband joined us, Jade was a former Windsor High School golf coach, a two time club champion at our local Windsor Country Club, (John P Larkin) and has competed off and on in Vermont Amateur Tournament. My husband LOVES golf!!! 

So I was happy to have the ability to share some of the golf experience I have amassed due to my marriage and Jade was happy to come and give kids the chance to give golf a swing!!

Patrick Allen our wonderful gym teacher and current Windsor High School golf coach was great in loaning out the First Tee equipment that he uses in gym class for this session. Which was extremely helpful for the younger members of the club. 

For the first time the kids in the club were divided up by age for an activity. Grades 3rd thru 6th went off with Jade and worked on their swings by chipping and eventually driving. With real actual golf clubs. 

The upper age kiddos worked on the side of the field facing the river. Stations were set up so that we had 6 people hitting golf balls at one time. While others stood a safe distance behind. What each of them were working on was swing the club and pitching the ball up onto the slight knoll of a hill that sits at the back of the field. A little flag and hula hoops were placed on the top. Which gave them all a viewpoint to hit towards. 

Once they had all gotten a chance to hit. Than came the fun part of collecting the balls. Which didn't seemed to matter to many of them because they wanted to just get back to hitting them! The pitching shots soon lead to attempts at driving the ball. Which caused some sounds of golf balls hitting the trees that stand on the edge of our little field. That sound general was followed by a chorus of cheers or cries of "oh man". 

Once they all got done with their pitching and driving they moved towards putting. Which I have to agree isn't nearly as much fun! Especially since they weren't putting on a miniature golf course! 

As for the littler ones, we worked on swinging the club. With the First Tee clubs we had, each of them got a chance to hit tennis balls towards hula hoops that had been set up in different locations before them. We went over the basics like how to hold a club and all of them gave the balls they hit a great big effort. Which meant that at times the ball went super far, or it went only two feet. Its hard to learn the skill of not attempting to kill the ball. A thing that even adults tend to forget when they play a quick round. Especially when they aren't playing well!

The 1st-2nd also worked on putting, which was hard to remember that you don't hit the ball the same way as you do a wedge. So the first couple of times they did putting The tennis balls went flying as though they had hit it with a wedge. With a bit of instruction they started to get the hang of it. 

Drawing towards the close of the session the 1st-2nd graders got the chance to hit golf balls if they wished with a real wedge. At this time of the day everyone was starting to feel grumpy, over tired and hot! Due to the weather and the moods of everyone we stopped playing golf at 4:30 and they got to do free play for the rest of the session. 

All in all I have to say that in Fit Kids I saw a lot of great potential in ABS having some really wonderful golfers!!!