Did Walmart Kill The Power Of The Sticker?

 Teachers and parents throughout  more than a few generations have used stickers to reward children for good behavior or good work on their school papers. But, have you found lately that children are less than interested in stickers lately? That the "sticker" seems to of lost it's special super powers?

 Some could say that stickers are not as rewarding today as they were before the internet age. Others might add that children are overindulged these days, and a paper sticker does not match up to being given a cell phone. And there is probably some  truth in both statements.

 But can looking at all details and a trip to Walmart reveal a new answer all together! Remember the Walmart Greeters at the doors? Does your Walmart still offer that smiling, older adult image to greet you and your children?  If so, watch the greeter and see if you can see what we  have encountered here.

The greeters are very nice and sweet. Older adults that are just trying to supplement their monthly funds or wanting to be out among people. They say "Hello, welcome to Walmart." They make you smile and then it happens...….. out come the yellow smiley face stickers, and they are offering them to your children or grandchildren.

A gesture that seems harmless, they smile at your child and the child smiles back at them. You remind your child to say "Thank you" to be polite. Your child continues through the store with you, smiling with their bright yellow sticker. All is well. Or is it...….

A couple of years ago, I was putting tiny smiley face stickers on turned out little feet in ballet class. They were smiling and showing their first position in ballet class. If it was great effort (not looking for perfection due to the age group), I place a smile sticker on one of their shoes. The left shoe to be correct, because we were working on which was left and which was right.

Stopping in front of a student that was not making an effort, I encouraged her to give it a try so that I could give her a smiling sticker. Her blonde head and blue eyes looked up at me and she said, "That's okay. We are going to Walmart after class and they give you a sticker for just showing up!"  Hmmmmm, time to rethink about stickers to encourage work in class or to reward effort.

Offering stickers to our students has been a challenge in recent years, which means we have had to find "work arounds" to become creative, using layering strategies to help the children want to complete class or an assignment in great fashion. After some trial and effort, a new system was designed, and you guessed it! The system includes stickers!!

A couple of systems have been tried in the last couple of years, with some to little success. So we continued to work on the system to make it more fun, while still directing young children towards greater success in class. A new system will begin in October of this year and more details will be emailed out to parents, so that they can encourage their child to continue completing their class and work in high fashion.

Students are still encouraged to work hard in class and on certain movements or elements in class. Stickers are given out for effort, participation, completion in class (did not ask to sit down or refused top participate), knowledge of skill (recall from other lessons/classes), attention to proper behavior in class, leadership and camaraderie. Musicians are also awarded stickers for returning their practice forms , fully filled out and signed by a parent.

Once a student is able to fill their form with stickers, they are rewarded by spinning a wheel for a prize. Prizes can be a trip to the treasure box to select their own prize, candy, a t-shirt, gym bags and more! Prizes will change every six to eight weeks to keep the interest fresh. At the end of the season, during the recital a drawing will be held of all of the students that were able to spin the wheel. One grand prize will be awarded.

So, back to the question, "Did Walmart kill the power of the stickers?" Did they? There are no greeters at most Walmart stores these days to observe and test the idea that this was part of the demise of the power of stickers we used in classes. It does appear that stickers lost their magic in our classes. Was it because of the big yellow stickers with happy faces? Or was it because the greeters were so nice, they did not dare ask the kids "Did you do well in school today?" or "Have you been good for mom today?" before offering the sticker. Life  just became too easy to get that big yellow sticker. Why work for it when it can be given to you.

So, Walmart may of had something to do about the demise of the power of offering a sticker to our students, or maybe not. But for sure the little student telling me it was okay she did not earn a sticker in class, because she could get one at Walmart with no effort  may just be the worst thing in her lifetime. Work ethics are learned early. So if you still have greeters at your local Walmart, help them out with a run down of questions before the sticker is handed to your child.
Have you used your manners today?
Have you been a friend to someone today?
Have you did your best today?
Did you complete your chores?
Did you complete your homework?
Have you read a book today?
Have you worked hard today?

It does not hurt them to work for the sticker. It makes them stronger for the future.


Mary Myers is the owner/ Director of Academy of Fine Arts located in Woodward OK

Why Should Your Son Be Taking Gymnastics??

There are many articles that cover the internet as to the values of children being in a gymnastics class. But we want to talk specifically about boys today. Why? Because families of boys tend to overlook gymnastics for their sons in our area, and turn more towards soccer, baseball, basketball, football, martial arts, and the shooting and hunting sports.

Why would gymnastics be overlooked? Well, probably because the television networks spend more time showing girls at gymnastic meets and only a small amount of time on the male gymnasts. Stop and think about it. How much coverage did you see on the men's Olympic team this past year? Don't remember? Probably because it was not during prime time network coverage.  

Why should your son be taking gymnastics? Well, we have a lot of ideas that is documented truth and will share about that later. But first let's talk about some of the things that we hear parents say to us about their son being in gymnastics. Some things such as, "We thought is was a sport only for girls." Or, "My boy is not going to wear one of those stretchy leotard things!" Or how about, "Boys can't bend and do splits like girls can!". And, "Gymnastics is a girls sport, not a boys sport!"  We encourage you to read on......

Gymnastics originates from the Greek and Roman games. Some articles even say is was used as a form of physical training for the military in ancient Spain. Here is one version of origin we found on the Scholastics.com site for teachers
(https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/history-gymnastics-ancient-greece-modern-times/) . It reads:

"Gymnastics was introduced in early Greek civilization to facilitate bodily development through a series of exercises that included running, jumping, swimming, throwing, wrestling, and weight lifting. Many basic gymnastic events were practiced in some form before the introduction by the Greeks of gymnazein, literally, "to exercise naked." Physical fitness was a highly valued attribute in ancient Greece, and both men and women participated in vigorous gymnastic exercises. The Romans, after conquering Greece, developed the activities into a more formal sport, and they used the gymnasiums to physically prepare their legions for warfare. With the decline of Rome, however, interest in gymnastics dwindled, with tumbling remaining as a form of entertainment."

So, back to why your son should be in gymnastics class. First of all, gymnastics is a great way for your child to develop better physical fitness. It is challenging and never boring, well, maybe a bit boring when they get stuck on a particular skill and feel like they are not going anywhere with the sport. But that is with every sport. Correct?

But a great coach knows how to distract your son from the complaint of boredom with different variations of the drills in learning a new skill. They can make it into a fitness challenge game that you son will enjoy and eventually see improvement from. The coach will track your child's skills and probably even post them on a check off poster for a visual enhancement towards working more to achieve other skill levels! 

Besides increasing your child's fitness level, they will also learn other great skills such as balance, spatial awareness, body control, strength of mind and personal commitment. 

Gymnastics also teaches all students that a particular skill starts at "X" and ends at "Y", thus also teaching a young child to follow through until they reach the end of the skill situation. Which transfers to being able to complete school assignments and projects! School teachers love having gymnastic students in their classes because of the strict self discipline the student acquires in the training of the body and mind.   

Gymnastics as we know it today, is a competitive sport and there are opportunities of being asked to be on teams. One of the major values learned in a gymnastic class or on a team is always working towards your personal best. That when a skill does not work on a particular day, you just keep trying and continue to work towards your goals. If you fall, gymnastics teaches you how to get back up quickly and try again. Once again, a personal skill training that transfers over into school and later in life into the work force. Being able to keep moving forward in life, no mater how many obstacles is a great way to get on a team.

Camaraderie in a gymnastic class seems to be like no other. Instead of your classmates sitting on a bench, maybe checking their cell phones, when you miss a tumbling element, or grab of a bar, in gymnastics the classmates are on the mats working out as well. They encourage with high fives and constant sayings of encouragement to get back up and try again, and again.

Speaking of a bench. There is none! Well, maybe a bench to sit on to take your shoes off or put your warm ups back on, but NO BENCH to sit on when you are training! Even if others in the training have made the team, and your son is still training to make the team, there is NO BENCH and NO SIDELINE in gymnastics class. No waiting and wanting to be able to get on the floor. No wondering if someone gets hurt, will you be chosen to be the one that gets on the floor next. AMAZING! No waiting for something to happen to the better athletes so that your child can go in and continue his training.
 

Gymnastics, like Cheerleading, historically has been dominated by males. It was a male that brought gymnastics from Europe to the United States.

"The sport was introduced to the United States by Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, who taught gymnastics in several U.S. universities about the time of the Civil War, and who is credited with inventing more than 30 pieces of apparatus. Most of the growth of gymnastics in the United States centered on the activities of European immigrants, who introduced the sport in their new cities in the 1880s. Clubs were formed as Turnverein and Sokol groups, and gymnasts were often referred to as "turners." Modern gymnastics excluded some traditional events, such as weight lifting and wrestling, and emphasized form rather than personal rivalry." (Scholastic.com)

Some of the top coaches in the US and the work have been male coaches. And gymnastics for males was in the Olympics forty years before women's gymnastics.

"Men's gymnastics was on the schedule of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, and it has been on the Olympic agenda continually since 1924. Olympic gymnastic competition for women began in 1936 with an all-around competition, and in 1952 competition for the separate events was added. In the early Olympic competitions the dominant male gymnasts were from Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Switzerland, the countries where the sport first developed. But by the 1950's, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the Eastern European countries began to produce the leading male and female gymnasts." (Scholastics.com)

What can your son expect when he enters one of our gymnastic classes? The first thing he will notice is a lack of boredom! The next thing he can expect is a lot of movement and activity. New skills are always talked through and demonstrated. There is a warm up, a stretch session to develop better flexibility and then drills that help to build skills and strength. There is time for individual work on the skills each person is trying to achieve. And then there is a cool down and stretch out before the class is dismissed. 

Why should your son be taking gymnastics class? Gymnastics is training your son will achieve self discipline, a stronger body and mind positioning, time management, follow through on projects, camaraderie with other classmates, and an understanding that a sport can be part of your life, but is not life. Life is learning that no matter how many times you fall down, you can get yourself up again and again. And gymnastics can help them to learn, see and be that. A person that just does not give up on achieving their lifetime goals. 

* Mary Myers is the owner of Academy of Fine Arts in Woodward Oklahoma. She has been coaching gymnastics for 40 years. 

7 Reasons Why Children Should Take Gymnastics

By Dr. Robyn J.A. Silverman, PhD

USA Gymnastics, Guide to Gymnastics, May 2009
As educated adults in today's world, most of us already know the importance of physical activity in a child's life. It's not only recommended by the Center for Disease Control, the American Heart Association and other knowledgeable governing bodies, it is downright necessary for healthy living.

As we have become more and more award of the need for physical activity, schools have cut back on physical education due to budgetary constraints and mandated testing requirements. The end result is still in progress. The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics clearly shows that children are becoming more overweight and our population as a whole is becoming more obese. These trends coupled with an ever more techno-savvy yet sedentary lifestyle has lead to more TV watching and not surprisingly, more health issues among our young people.

Luckily, we have options. We can seek out a gymnastics academy that can provide a great physical program to help our children create a healthy lifestyle. But just as important, we can seek out a club that provides our children with a place that stimulates their brains, exercises their social skills, encourages personal development, and fosters a sense of well-being all at the same time.

Physical Benefits
Gymnastics can endow children with great physical benefits. From muscle strength and balance to healthy bones and flexibility, gymnastics provides an exciting option for parents who know the value of a full body work. Every part of the body is used when doing gymnastics!

* Muscle Strength: Opportunities to gain muscle strength through tumbling, jumping, static flexing, and holding one's own body weight in various positions help children develop strong and powerful bodies. Muscle is built through resistance training which allows children to use their body's resistance as their own personal weight machine! Over time, these gymnasts get stronger which aids in the development of lean, toned muscles, improved balance and perhaps even improvements in posture.

* Healthy Bones: These same types of movements assist children with developing strong healthy bones since gymnastics is a weight-bearing activity. Weight-bearing activities, according to the CDC, are activities in which the child's body works against gravity. This means that a child's legs, feet or arms are actually supporting or carrying his or her own body weight.

* Flexibility: Flexibility is also a helpful by-product of gymnastics. Flexibility is simply put, the ability move the muscles through their full range of motion. Because gymnasts aim to achieve a variety of positions in order to perform skills on each apparatus, flexibility is important. It also has great use in everyday life such that it reduces tension, helps coordination, develops body awareness and promotes circulation.

Because gymnastics provides fun skills that children can practice at home, they will be more likely to engage in physical activity even between gymnastics classes. As we can all agree, the more we can get children up and off the couch and moving, the healthier they will become.

Non-Physical Benefits
A great gymnastics club that provides stimulating, age-appropriate curriculum and terrific instructors who care about their students, can help children yield other important non-physical benefits from gymnastics. Cognitive, social, and psycho-social benefits might not be as obvious as a toned muscle, but there is no question that they are there.

* Cognitive Benefits: When children are engaging in gymnastics, they are exercising their brains as well as their bodies. New research suggests that there is a strong correlation between physically fit children and academic achievement. This means that everytime you send your child to gymnastics class, they're getting an opportunity to engage in physical exercise that encourages healthy brain function. Nerve cells multiply and connections in the brain are strengthened. It is not surprising that children who are engaging in consistent physical activity like gymnastics are more likely to get better grades than their inactive peers.

* Social skills: Children can also benefit socially from engaging in gymnastics. Aside from simply interacting in a general way with other children in the class, some gymnastics clubs also encourage teamwork and partner drills in their classes. The more children can interact with different types of children both in school and in after-school programming, the more they will learn how to handle conflict and positively relate to others.

* Reduced Risky Behavior: Gymnastics clubs can provide a stable, reliable physical activity source for both children and teens. Young people who are consistently physically active are much less likely to engage in using tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs. When children can find positive, active ways to keep busy in a place that you can trust, they will not have to make up ways to occupy their time that could lead to poor or risky choices.

* Confidence: When gymnastics clubs use a supportive, mastery-oriented approach rather than one that pressures children to excel at all costs, instructors can help their budding athletes develop a wonderful sense of confidence. While physical activity tends to reduce feelings of depression and anxiety, with the right instructors, children develop and "I can" attitude that can give them that intangible high of knowing that they can count on themselves to succeed.

Gymnastics can be a wonderful activity for children to enjoy. It can clearly benefit young people in several ways. Fortunately, there are many great clubs from which to choose! So if your child asks you "can I please try gymnastics?" you can confidently answer "yes," knowing that with your encouragement and the right club, he/she can focus on enjoying himself/herself and getting the most out of every class.

Super Hero Camp for Boys!

Super Hero camp starts next week and registration is available on our website. Young boys will enjoy the fun and adventure each day of the three day camp and are encouraged to arrived dressed as their favorite super hero! Adventures await the Super Heros in this camp. Call us at 580-256-3262 for more information about Super Hero camp for boys in our Woodward OK location.