Carefully designed for babies learning to sit and crawl, Wee Peas provides our littlest scooters with active learning activities that focus on whole baby development. Wee Peas are given opportunities to move, reach, and grasp in a baby safe environment that is rich with color, sound and tactile experiences. Wee Peas learn to recognize their name in class and react in identifying themselves to the teacher. Wee Peas enjoy activities that promote visual tracking, core strength and balance needed for sitting and standing. The Wee Pea curriculum includes activities that promote grip strength and hand coordination in grasping objects and releasing. Objectives include activities that promote crossing the mid-line and bilateral awareness needed or crawling and walking. Wee Peas work on spatial awareness and positional comfort through gentle developmentally appropriate rolling and inversion exercises. Wee Peas also enjoy some of their first experiences in playing and learning with other babies and gain cornerstone lessons in social awareness through interacting with their Wee Pea friends! Wee Peas are in the golden first 12 months of life. There are amazing neural miracles taking place in this precious first year!
Did you know… movements that involve crossing the midline encourage cognitive function? Cross lateral movements, for example, involve passing an object from the right hand to the left hand or using the right foot to step over the left foot. Cross lateral movements work both sides of the body in a balanced way and require coordinated movements of both eyes, both ears and both hands and/or feet. Cross lateral activities activate both hemispheres and all four lobes of the brain, heightening cognitive function and engaging learning processes.
Movement primes Wee Peas for learning. The Sweet Peas Educational Gymnastics Program is designed to provide fun and delightful cognitive and developmental opportunities in an active learning environment
One Peas are ready to move! With their newly developing upright mobility (and sometimes a mix of both eagerness and hesitation), One Peas love to explore! One Peas are beginning to understand words and ideas. The active learning goals of One Peas promote neural development in the amazing one-year old brain. The One Pea curriculum is designed to provide enriching activities in a safe and fun environment. One Peas learn self-awareness and physical adaptation through developmentally appropriate gymnastics activities such as stepping, rolling, balancing, sliding and swinging. One Peas learn baby rhythm and sequencing through physical activities coordinated with music and prompts. One Peas learn to clap, step, count, stop and start, and repeat. Creatures of repetition, One Peas begin to recognize and anticipate routines in the One Pea lesson plans. They are beginning to remember what they have learned and they are excited to participate.
The One Pea curriculum is designed to enhance the direct connection between active movement and brain processing. One Peas’ brains are processing important things as they walk in a circle and scoot across the beam. Their brains are developing as they roll on the wedge mat, bounce on the springboard, swing on the rings, climb through tunnels and hang from the bars. Gymnastics provides opportunities to balance, hold, reach, grip and bounce. One Peas are learning and growing at an amazing pace as they transition from babyhood to toddler-hood. This is a magical year!
Two- year olds are AMAZING! Two Peas are gaining independence! The Two Peas program is designed to capitalize on the rapidly improving physical, cognitive and language development of two-year olds. The Two Pea curriculum offers opportunities for gross motor skill development with whole body activities in developmentally appropriate circuits. Two Peas learn to run with developing synchronization; step, hold and balance on alternate feet; roll forward, sideways and backwards on a wedge with a spot; and transfer weight from feet to hands and back. Two Peas play (or observe play) interactively structured games with other Two Pea classmates. They sing and perform physical motions to familiar songs. They are introduced to concepts of recognition, compare and contrast, and distinction through use of basic shapes in equipment and learning resources used in class. Two Peas begin to recognize colors through materials and activities in class; begin to recite numbers through counting or listening while performing physical motions; and increase language development through physical activities promoting word association. The Two Pea program is designed to provide a multi-sensory educational gymnastics experience that prepares the Two Pea to engage his or her occipital lobes through experience with shape patterns and colors. The Two Pea curriculum engages the little ones temporal and frontal lobes and promotes higher cognitive processing through language, words and tone. Children learn best when they are moving. We know that the more regions of the brain we can engage in the process of learning, the more significant the impact on learning will be.
Our Two Pea goal is to provide fun, quality gymnastics activities that foster the important neural development of our amazing two-year olds.
Three-year olds are ready to go! Three Peas are gaining increased motor development, eye hand coordination and fine motor skills! Three Peas are also quickly assimilating language and are able to understand and independently follow basic instructions in gymnastics class. The Three Pea curriculum is designed to provide skill development on floor, bean bars and vault. Three Peass work on forward rolls, straddle rolls and Three Peaa cartwheels. They increase their balance with beam work that includes alternating forward kicks, squat holds, relevé walks and beam crawls. Three Peas develop core strength by learning to draw to a tuck from a straight hang on the bars and execute forward rolls over the bar. Their vault skills include punching the board with both feet, a squat on to a block and donkey kicks. Three Peas are introduced to instructions that incorporate spatial, sequential and directional cues. They are continuing to develop an understanding of differences in color, shape, size and color. The developing independence of Three Peas helps them participate in structured circuit sequences as they prepare for more independent activities in the Three Pea program.
Three Peas is designed to provide a multi-sensory, educational gymnastics experience that provides an active learning platform that will promote brain development, social development and overall well-being. The Sweet Pea curriculum provides early opportunities for three-year olds to learn language skills, differentiation skills, sequencing, color and shape recognition and more all while actively engaged in physical movement. We know that gymnastics is fun and we know that learning is important. Our progressive curriculum expertly incorporates early childhood learning with active learning gymnastics, in a gentle and fun environment. We know that children learn best when they are moving! Three Peas is an amazing program that will provide your child with unparalleled physical, social and developmental opportunities.
Four-year olds are on the go! Four Peas can run, hop, climb and throw a ball. Their increasing coordination makes them faster and more deliberate. Their increasing strength makes them able to perform many new gymnastics skills. Their cognitive development is growing by leaps and bounds and they are able to interpret and remember learning objectives. Four Peas can recognize and name many letters numbers. They can count in unison and repeat simple stories and sequences.
Four-year olds need a minimum of 60-90 minutes of active play a day! They need opportunities to run, build, swing and bounce. The Four Pea curriculum embraces the four-year old’s readiness for learning and provides a dynamic educational gymnastics environment. Four Peas work on forward rolls, straddle rolls, and backward rolls on both a wedge and on the floor. They are practicing straighter legs and longer holds in the execution of their skills. Four Peas are working on their balance with skills on beam such as straight jumps, alternating kick possé sequences and Four Pea arabeques. Four Peas are gaining speed and accuracy on the vault. They are mastering their squat on, donkey kicks with horizontal hips and jumping on and off a block.
The educational gymnastics focus for Four Peas continues with number and letter recognition, group counting, group singing, increased differentiation of left and right, positive peer interactions and increased independence in following instructions and participating in structured station-based activities.
We know that children learn best when they are moving. Many Four Peas are preparing for kindergarten. The Four Peas program provides an educational environment where children can experience active learning, predictable structure, positive peer associations, successful independence from parents and balanced learning.
Five Peas are ready to test their skills! Five-year olds have reached physical and developmental milestones that allow them to progress rapidly. With longer limbs, more refined coordination and stronger language skills, Five Peas can run faster, climb higher and hold longer!
Five Peas are refining their technique with focus on form and lines. The Five Pea curriculum includes bridges, handstands, L- handstands and stronger executions of rolls. The Five Pea cartwheel demonstrates proper sequencing and a more refined lunge finish. Five Peas can hold their relevés and arabesques on beam and are developing the core strength needed to hold tucks, straddles and pikes on the bars. Five Peass are mastering the vault runway with sequenced runs. They are punching the board with two feet and their vaults now include stretch jumps, squats onto the block and forward rolls.
Oh, to be five! What an important year this is! The Five Pea curriculum capitalizes on the amazing, compounding cognitive and social development of the Five Pea. Our educational gymnastics curriculum incorporates gymnastics terms, independent counting, group presentation and recognition of the alphabet, interpretation of music, recognition of timing and counts in music, and increased awareness of spatial relationships.
Five Peas are increasingly capable of predicting and successfully completing known circuits and are given opportunities to independently navigate an active learning circuit. Five Peass love showing off and are encouraged to try new skills, improve their form and do it again. The Five Pea curriculum continues to focus on helping the five-year old develop friendships, demonstrate good manners, share experiences and listen to others. Five Peas gain experience waiting their turn, encouraging classmates and respecting the teacher.Every minute in the Five Pea classroom is balanced with important physical activity, social interaction and life learning! Our program objectives for Five Peas include developing the ability to form meaningful friendships and feeling joy and confidence in learning.
Six Peas want to do it all! Six-year olds have the physical, cognitive and developmental abilities to do great things! They can gallop, skip, move to counts and run backwards. They can climb just about anything you don’t want them to climb and they can jump from the table to the couch with hardly a blink. Most six-year olds understand about 5,000 words and are at various stages of learning to read. Six Peas are capable of listening and understanding more detailed instructions and are generally eager to please. We love working with Six Peas!
Six Peas are working on cartwheels, handstands and straight-legged tables – all with increasing form and technique. Six Peas are gaining more advanced abilities with floor sequences that combine rolls, jumps, lunges, turns and finishes. The Six Pea curriculum also includes the added learning challenge of properly counting and executing skills to music beats and claps.
Six Peas’ developing balance and strength enables them to work on a jump to front support on the beam, 3 second V-sit hold on beam, lever to a T position and more. Six Peas train on windows on bars as well as L-hang and flexed arm hangs with a 5 second hold. Bars are becoming even more fun as Six Peas are able to work on window pikes and straddles, casts from front supports, forward rolls to flexed arm hangs, pullovers and back hip circles. The Six Peas’ vault curriculum includes focus on hollow body shaping, handstands, tucks and straddles.
The early childhood years are incredibly important to a child’s life-long ability and desire to learn. The Sweet Peas educational gymnastics program provides an amazing foundation for children and prepares them for physical, academic and social success in the years to come.
