Children Inspired by Yoga with Tatty Bumpkin - Tunbridge Wells

At last Spring 🪻will be here (even though that means darker mornings for a while). There's a Spring Ball that Tatty Bumpkin has been invited to in the Enchanted Wood with all the woodland creatures. But disaster strikes when Cockerel forgets to change his clock and wakes everyone up an hour late!
Making Cockerel's beak with elbows by wrapping the arms around the body stretches the shoulders and by crossing the midline will help with skills such as dressing, eating with cutlery and writing.

Spring has sprung (and we haven't even changed the clocks yet!), but in our story this week, Bear is noticing the Spring flowers having woken up after his long winter of hibernation - I think I'd quite like to be a Bear too!
Bear pose is quite tricky for young children as it involves good balance and co-ordination, whilst stretching their calf and hamstring muscles.

It's already week 3 in our Green Term and this week we are zooming off into space, visiting different planets and refining our Sun Pose as we spot the glowing ball out of the rocket window. We make a stop on Mars, jumping very slowly with some Martian Frogs, really strengthening our leg muscles, working on our balance and increasing our vocabulary.

This week's pose of the week is Rabbit, as we hopefully see some more sunshine this week. The winter Olympics may be over, but the animal games have just begun!
Rabbit pose helps to strengthen so many muscle groups - shoulder, tummy, back and hips - which helps with being able to sit in a comfortable and balanced position. Strengthening shoulder muscles also helps improve handwriting skills.

We're already well into our Green term and have already waddled like penguins and have many more poses to come to stretch the children's bodies and encourage their development.

In our Tatty Bumpkin classes this week we have been to the South Pole, waddling as Penguins, balancing eggs on our feet and making pancakes, which we missed last week in most of our nurseries with it being half term. But they taste just as good a week late!

Feeling inspired by the Winter Olympics❄️🎿, or heading off to the slopes for half term?🏂
Don't forget your stretches and muscle workouts both before, during and after your trip.
Here are some ideas to keep you strong and injury-free

We are supporting Children's Mental Health Week - 9th-15th February
This year's theme is 'This is My Place' and our story this week is with Dolphin who feels different from all his friends. We will be thinking about how we are all different from each other, we look different, sound different and can do different things, and that's ok. We still all belong together and are part of the same community.

According to 'Kindred Squared', the number of children who are not school-ready has risen since 2004. Primary school teachers are reporting that children don't have basic life skills such as being toilet trained, emotional regulation and basic language skills.
We have noticed a huge change in the pre-school children we teach over the last few years. Luckily we don't get involved with the toilet training aspect, but emotional regulation and levels of speech and language are not as refined as they were.
So what needs to change? Should be be focussing on improving regulation, encouraging speech and language (which our classes certainly help with), or should the expectations for our 4-5 years olds be changed in a changing world?
What do you think?

Kindred Squared ‘school-readiness’ survey suggests rising number of children are not prepared for reception | www.eyalliance.org.uk Survey results show an increasing number of children are struggling with key skills when they get to reception.

We’re back at at 10am tomorrow with a new yoga adventure with Tatty Bumpkin. Come and join us for fun, coffee and even some relaxation 🧘🏻