Being a member at The Little Gym Westfield comes with so much more than just your weekly classes. Here are a few of the member benefits you will receive when you become part of The Little Gym family:

Flexible Enrolment:

You can change your regular class at any point during the year as long as space allows it. If your circumstances change or we feel your little one is ready for the next class, we can move them into the right class for their schedule (click here for our new season timetable).

Cancellation and Make Up Service:

The life of a parent is anything but straightforward! Therefore, if you and your child need to miss your class for whatever reason, you can take advantage of this service. Just let us know when you can't attend your class, and you have until the end of the school year to catch the class up! Giving you the flexibility to make it up at a time that is convenient for you. As an added bonus, you can share your make up’s between siblings, giving you even more flexibility and choice throughout the year.

Birthday Parties:

Our hassle free parties are designed to make your child’s special day as smooth as possible. From setting up to clearing up, to activities in the gym, our team is there every step of the way to ensure your child and their guests (and you!) have the most amazing experience. As a member, you receive our special member rates for parties. 

 Holiday Camps:

Holiday's coming up, don't worry parents, we've got your back! Holiday Camps at TLG Westfield are jam packed and bursting with fun! From themed adventure camps to skill thrill gymnastic camps, our three hour OFSTED approved sessions will be running at Christmas, Easter and Summer and our simple booking options gives you all the flexibility to book around your plans. Members receive a discounted price for booking camps (click here to see our summer holiday camp timetable). 

Special Events - Bring A Friend:

Sharing an experience, like a gym class, with a friend always guarantees a good time, so during our new season, we will be introducing our Bring a Friend event. This will be a designated week where your little ones can invite a friend of a similar age to join them in their class. Keep your eyes peeled, as more information to come. 

Not signed up? Call us on 02087350817  or email us at westfield@thelittlegym.co.uk

 Spaces limited, so don't delay!! 

See you in the gym soon!

10 Tips for Boosting Your Child’s Brain – And It’s NOT What You Think!  

It’s January, and that means Insta and Facebook feeds overflowing with photos of washboard stomachs and personal trainers coaxing us to get fit, strengthen our core, and work on our abs (in 2.5 minutes a day…!). 

But when we hear the word ‘core’ at The Little Gym, our minds go to an entirely different place. 

We think of children developing their core to gain body control, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, good posture and balance. We imagine nurturing and growing a generation of children that are confident movers in the playground and good listeners in the classroom. Children with the tools to be their best at everything they do. 

What does the core have to do with all that?
While having a strong core is great for us adults – and we’d love to show off those abs too – developing your child’s core is critical to help them accomplish even the simplest of movements.

The muscles in your child’s torso are their body control centre.  Without a strong core, your child can’t fully control their body – arms, legs, and even fingers. 

Imagine a great tennis racket – the best on the market. Now give it a bendy rubber or foam handle. Your handle would be all floppy and the racket impossible to control.  The net might be the best on the market, but with a floppy, bendy handle it’s impossible to play at your best.

The same happens to a child with a weak core trying to control their body. They can’t function to the best of their ability physically, intellectually, emotionally or socially. Walking, running, sitting, balancing become more difficult, and your child must spend precious brain power concentrating on simple movements.  

Children with a strong core have the brain space to listen, focus, and tune in to the world around them –learning from you, from their teachers, from interacting with their surroundings, and other children. Let’s not waste a drop of their incredible brain power and potential. 

Read on for our teacher’s 10 favourite, fun core-building activities for children. Tested in the Gym and with our own children too. 

10 Fun Ways to Build Their Core

• Climb up, down, and side-to-side on play equipment, trees, logs (or sofas!). Even as parents we sometimes become human climbing frames! 
• Hang and swing from a bar, branch, or grown-ups’ hands. Lifting their feet while hanging will give an extra core boost. 
• Roll along the floor, or down a grassy hill for extra fun. Why not roll over to the sofa, get dressed for the day, and roll back to breakfast!
• Walk around the room on hands and feet like a crab or a bear. Turn your house into a zoo!
• Bunny Jumps all around the house and garden. See if Mr McGregor can catch you!
• Monkey Jumps – keep hands on the ground and jump two feet around from side-to-side. 
• Wrestle with your grown-up or a sibling. Even the dog! Wrestling and rough play is a great fun and prescribed by child development experts.
• Drag heavy stuff around the garden, or branches in the park, to build a den.
• A good fashioned wheelbarrow – hands on the ground, grown-up holding onto your legs, and wheelbarrow all the way to bed or to breakfast. 
• Lots of Tummy Time for babies. Make it fun, engaging and playful to win over even the grumpiest of tummy timers. Research shows it’s great for toddlers, kids and even adults too. Try it out!
• The Little Gym at Home Mini launches on 25th January with a selection of core strength videos demonstrating the fun ways to Build Your Core. 

Join classes at The Little Gym for a fun core work-out in every single class and camp! Find your nearest The Little Gym at thelittlegym.co.uk 

Stuck at home? Our YouTube channel has nearly 100 online classes and activities to keep your child moving and growing. Free and on demand to suit your schedule. Get moving with The Little Gym @ Home! 

Cartwheels. The best playground currency you can have! Let’s dive deeper and explore what makes this skill such a great one to learn

When you were young you may have been taught that you can either cartwheel or you can’t. This is simply not true! At The Little Gym we have hundreds of ways to break down and build up all the movements needed for a cartwheel. We get so much joy out of making sure that when they are developmentally ready every child reaches this goal skill in our weekly classes.
Cartwheels are not just one movement: they are the culminations of lots of different elements of coordination that come together to create the big cartwheel move. Learning a cartwheel supports brain function for higher learning skills such as handwriting, reading and concentration. Here are some of the amazing benefits of learning to cartwheel.

Crossing The Midline
Being able to spontaneously cross the midline of your body is something that you need to learn to do for drawing, eating with a knife and fork, handwriting and even tying up your shoelaces. This means you can use your right hand to do something on the left side of your body and visa versa. Learning to cartwheel is a fun way to help this fundamental skill mature. Once you have the big cartwheel, you also know that crossing the midline is something that your body and brain can do.

Body Awareness
Whether you are playing a team sport such as football or making sure you don’t bump into your friends in the playground, you are using your body awareness. Body awareness is a major element of coordination. Learning where to put your hands and feet, how much power to exert on your body to motor yourself over or when is the right time to put your hands down on the floor, all require body awareness. Cartwheels with their 360-degree rotation give the brain and body a great workout.

Balance
Balance isn’t just about being still. Balance is about moving and not falling over. Cartwheels stimulate the body’s balance control centre, which is located in your inner ear. It’s called your vestibular system. Interestingly when the vestibular system is stimulated it also regulates the brain to help with alertness and concentration.

Good for mental health
There is nothing better than the feeling of whizzing around from your hands to your feet whilst doing a cartwheel. The oxytocin that is released is a real mood booster. Confidence in your body and its ability is a great bi product of learning to cartwheel.

Like all the skills we teach at The Little Gym, cartwheels build a fantastic foundation for building motor skills and transferable skills.

Watch our How To…Guides on YouTube.