Welcome to Gym Magic!
If you’re looking for a wonderful place for kids to LEARN, LAUGH & GROW, you’ve come to the right place!!!
We offer a host of wonderful programs geared just for children because we know they are the future; they deserve the very best we can provide! All of our programs have a strong focus on developing and perfecting physical skills within our various sports, but most importantly, we specialize in the ‘whole child’ because we believe every child is a champion! Every child is unique; every child can succeed. We build muscles, yes; but we also build a child’s self worth.
We believe in excellent training; we believe in fun and challenge. Our sports are also used as ‘tools’; tools to develop life skills such as persistence, self-reliance, dedication and responsibility. Because our sports are fun and also challenging, we have a wonderful opportunity to teach life skills while our students are simply ‘having fun’.
Once kids internalize that learning is fun, their futures can explode with possibilities! Building positive learning attitudes that set the stage for a life-long love of learning is the foundation of our program. We believe success and the processes involved in success are learned, and we believe our programs (that are steeped in FUN combined with challenge) help teach children about success. The hope of every parent is to have happy, successful children, and we believe we can assist in this great endeavor!
IMPORTANT BENEFITS OF OUR PROGRAMS
Many of the benefits of our programs are not readily apparent because they work internally. Smiles and laughter are always great clues for parents to let them know their children are having fun and enjoying themselves, but there’s another very important aspect that isn’t so visible but is extremely important. This relates to brain development and what neuroscience has learned about movement and sensory integration. Let me quote from a noted neurophysiologist, Dr. Carla Hannaford:
“The more closely we consider the elaborate interplay of brain and body, the more clearly one compelling theme emerges: Movement is essential to learning. Movement awakens and activates many of our mental capacities. Movement integrates and anchors new information and experience into our neural networks. And movement is vital to all the actions by which we embody and express our learning, our understanding and ourselves.”
It turns out the movement and the stimulation of the vestibular system (3D canals in the inner ears) in early childhood actually helps prepare and develop the brain for what we term “higher learning” (focus, concentration, problem solving, speech, language, reading, writing, and social-emotional maturity). Movement (rolling, climbing, spinning, jumping, etc.) helps organize and facilitate the flow of information within the brain and lays the foundation for the development of “higher learning”. John J. Ratey, MD, had this to say about movement and brain development, “Mounting evidence show that movement is crucial to every other brain function, including memory, emotion, language, and learning…Our “higher” brain functions have evolved from movement and still depend on it.”
We’ve come full circle in this riddle of learning, movement and education. In the past, learning and higher thought were considered to be entirely separate from movement. Play and movement were relegated to second place when it came to the process of learning. We now know that communication within the brain improves when it is organized with movement. There is also plenty of evidence showing the positive effects of movement and exercise on behavior and our mental states. So at a time when our society is spending less time and money on movement (exercise & active sports) and more on computers and technology, we find that the process of learning is actually connected to movement and exercise. Our challenge now is to merge and balance the needs of our technological society with our biology, which has developed using movement to properly integrate our brain’s communication.
Although we at Gym Magic believe learning to perform a flip, a turn or a backstroke are great ways to learn new skills and develop self-confidence in the process, there’s really much, much more going on during this process. And as our children spend more time sitting (watching TV, using the computer, playing computer games, etc.), it is imperative to balance these activities with a steady supply of integrative movement activities that stimulate the brain in different ways and promote proper brain development for later “higher learning”. And now the best part – your kids will want to participate because our activities are just naturally FUN! They won’t even know that something deeper is actually taking place; they’ll just know that they are having fun!
Gymnastics Program | Est. 1993
We’ve been a USA Gymnastics Member Club and participated in the USAG Junior Olympic Program for boys and girls since 1993. We opened our doors with the hopes of providing a fun, safe environment for young kids to enjoy gymnastics and have grown into a full multi-sport facility. Gymnastics is the foundation of our center. It was our first sport, and it has laid the groundwork for all our other programs. Gym Magic was founded on the principle that all of our programs should help young kids develop into healthy, happy, and confident young adults. We believe nothing is more precious than our children & grandchildren. While gymnastics is an exciting physical activity, we believe its best benefits stretch far beyond fitness and physical agility. We believe, when gymnastics is taught properly, it can be one of the best tools to teach life skills (self-confidence, courage, discipline, commitment, perseverance, and mental focus).
Sweet Peas Preschool Gymnastics
Founded in educational gymnastics, the Sweet Peas curriculum focuses on age appropriate gymnastics activities that foster coordination, balance, core strength, bilateral awareness and flexibility. Taught in a social, collaborative environment, Sweet Peas provides important life lessons in self-awareness, courage, success and friendship. The Sweet Peas curriculum is centered around excellent, progressive gymnastics training which incorporates color recognition, language development, spatial relations, music awareness, measurements and counting skills. Sweet Peas learn how to listen to their teacher, follow instructions and wait for their turn. They learn to enjoy their own achievements and to encourage and applaud the success of their classmates. We know that every Sweet Pea learns at his or her own rate. The Sweet Peas program engages children through expertly designed lesson plans that provide structure and productivity in the gymnastics classroom while at the same time allowing flexibility and pacing for each unique child.
Swimming Instruction
The Lily Pad Swim School was created and launched under the roof of Gym Magic Kids in 2004. We adopted a proven curriculum that has taught hundreds of thousands of children throughout the nation. Our program divides children by age and then skill. Our 5 skill levels (Parent-child, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced Intermediate & Advanced) are designed to build confidence in the water, teach safety skills, and teach progression swim skills. Our parent-child and beginner classes are for children with little or no swim skills. Classes will focus on building comfort in the water as well as teach basic, beginning swim skills. Our intermediate to advanced classes work on compnents of the four competitive swim strokes. At the end of the program, students should be able to perform all 4 swim strokes with technical refinement as well as understanding safety and survival techniques. Our goal is to provide a safe, fun, and structured opportunity for children to learn the life-saving skill of swim.