Pilates For Children

Chapter 1

Joseph Pilates had a chapter in his book that said, "First educate the child." And this was a mission of his to have children do his work, to do the pilates method. And my background is in education and I have a master's in education from NYU and my thesis for my master's, what I did was I made a curriculum that could be implemented into private and public school settings in both an urban and rural setting and also that could be implemented into the private sector. And I am a part of the pilates youth program with the Pilates Method Alliance. And that has been a great experience for me, especially with working with the people that I've been working with. And we are trying to create a manual and a curriculum and some research that can be distributed to everybody.

So this is definitely a passion of mine, and I'm very excited to be able to share what I've come up with. First, what I'd like us to do is to all stand up and make a circle. Great. So I have an imaginary ball and my imaginary ball is probably about this big and my ball is green and it has white stripes on it and yellow stars. And what we're gonna do is I'm going to pass the ball to the person next to me.

Then you're gonna pass the ball to the person next to you, but you wanna find a very creative and interesting way to do it. And there's no right, there's no wrong. Any way you like to pass the ball, you may. So maybe the ball's really, really heavy and I have to pass it that way. Maybe it's very light and I can juggle it.

Maybe I can bring it around and do something. So there's a multiple of possibilities that you can do. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take my ball, and I'm gonna pass it to you. Very nice. (laughter) Oh, that's a heavy ball.

And I think we're gonna do one more round. I'm gonna go the other way this time. The ball seems to be a little lighter. Now she's blew it to the next person. Up under the leg there.

It's heavy again. Getting lighter. She's tossing it into the air and over the shoulder and around the world and she's gonna roll it. So there's a nice level change there. Up and down.

She kicked it to me. So thank you guys. And you guys, if you like, you may sit down. So what I did is, and you guys can move forward. I actually, I'm sorry, we're gonna do one more thing before that.

But what I did was a focus exercise. So your focus was not outside, your focus was on that ball and it helped to just concentrate on your mind. It helped you to be present in the room. And also, where are you guys running around the room. No, you were pretty stationary.

So as a way, it was doing a lot of different things. It was helping you to focus, it was helping to define the space, but also it was helping with behavior. So many different things. But it's very important when you're working with children to have them focus in the beginning because they're coming in and they're like, they're loud and they're happy and they're really having a good time, but you have to do things to define the space and get them concentrated. Then the thing I like about the ball, that it's one thing.

Also, it's an imaginary ball so they can use their imagination. And that's how children learn, you have to use a lot of imagination with children. Maybe the next week, when we came in, maybe someone else would pick the color of the ball. Maybe their ball would be pink with purple stars or maybe someone's ball, the next week is a little lighter. It's red and blue and it has a race car on it.

So that way you get them to use their imagination. They feel like they're part of something and that they're being able to contribute. And also you're getting them to focus. This is a really good exercise with the younger children. Another focus exercise I do.

This is not something I would do in the very beginning. This would be an exercise I would do with them once I've been with them for a good couple months, and I know who their personalities and I also have some sort of control of the situation, I would do this one. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna put some music on and you guys can all come back to the space. Okay. So I have a balloon.

This balloon has little smiley face, I like to get these ones. What we're gonna do is we're gonna keep the ball in the air, but we're not gonna be running around crazy, we're just going to lightly keep the ball up. Notice that I have a light music on. Nothing that's too rambunctious. You're just gonna just try to keep the ball in the air and our goal is to not let the ball drop.

So we have to work together, but we're also focusing on one point. Okay, great. And someone could pass to me, we're gonna add on to this. Now this wouldn't be the same day, but maybe a week or two later, let's try to keep the ball up in the air, but we're only gonna use the upper body to do it, but we're not allowed to use our hands. So maybe the elbow or somebody can use their shoulder or their head.

That's lower body, but it's okay. Well now maybe a couple of weeks later, we do add on lower bodies. So you can use any part of your body now, but don't let it drop. Any part of the body except your hands. Good.

Great. So that's another example of a focus exercise. Kind of fun, right? If it's fun for adults, imagine how fun it is for children. Okay, and you guys sit.

If you guys wanna move closer, you may do so. So we're gonna go back a little bit later and talk a little bit more about focus exercises. But since I always like to put this in the beginning of the workshop, because if it works with children, it works for adults as well. And the funny thing about it is the more and more I work with the children, the more and more I apply the techniques that how you work with children to adults. It's very funny how that can translate.

So I like to do a brief overview of the course. So first we're gonna talk about ways of implementing pilates program into a variety of settings. Then we're gonna talk about the child learner and the considerations needed when working with this population. We're gonna talk a little bit about lesson planning, and then we're going to remove all of this and we're going to actually work and do a lot of the exercises that I do with children. And we will talk about incorporating a warmup, child appropriate pilates exercises.

Partners in groups, pilates games and the cooldown. And then afterwards, we can do questions and answers, but also feel free to ask questions any time. So if you need any extra questions, we have it at the end. So first educate the child. So this is a quote from Joseph Pilates.

"In childhood habits are easily formed, good and bad. "Why not then concentrate on the formation "of only good habits and first avoid "the necessity later on in life of attempting to correct "bad habits and substituting them for good habits." This is something I really believe in. If you start with the children when they're young, you're gonna give them a better sense of self embodiment. I always think about Lolita San Miguel. I used to train with her and I would go to Puerto Rico and stay for a couple of days or a week.

And we used to talk a lot when she was not teaching me. And we're talking about children and pilates. And I was talking about how that was a focus of mine. And she said, "You know, I think it's very good "because children go through life and go through school. "They learn about math, they learn about science, "but people never learn how to be and live "in their own bodies." And it's very important that they get that idea in the beginning, because maybe if something is wrong with your body, when you're older, if you're embody, if you have self embodiment, maybe you will understand, "Oh, something in my body is not right." And maybe a good way to the doctor sooner and prevent something from happening.

So definitely I think it's very important to start with the children. And this is a little clip of a little child working at the New York studio with Joseph Pilates. And you can see Clara in the background, in the mirror a little bit. And this child I would imagine is probably about nine or 10 years old. So the advantage of being able to look through archival information is that you come across a whole lot of things.

And this is a child who Joseph Pilates is working with at the studio. And I'm gonna show just a little bit of this, but he not only works with this child on the mat, but he also works a little bit on the wonder chair as well. And I believe the reason why is because the child is scoliotic, so the child has scoliosis. So he does do a little work with him there. And actually this clip, you can get, they sell this video.

I believe you can get this. I believe power pilates might sell it. So I know that this is available and this is out there. And this is pretty much about 15 minutes of the child working and doing pilates. And I think it's fascinating.

And then I have other clips actually as well, and that I'm not gonna be showing today, but of children working with Joseph Pilates.

Chapter 2

I, myself, I have a program called kinder house and we have a variety of classes. We have kinder or pilates. And then that age group is usually between about anywhere between four and 10. And then we also do classes like creative movement and toddler play. And we also used to do, I mean now, we're not doing it, but we used to do a mommy and me pilates as well.

And they're very popular. And it's a whole program and the children love coming to the studio because their parents do pilates. And they love it, they're doing it too. They go, "I'm going to pilates today." It's a really cute to hear them say that. Another option in the private sector is recreation centers.

So I have done this work as well, where I will go to like a boys club or JCC or some sort of recreation center and offer a class for children. And these are very easy to do. Also, it's very inexpensive because you don't need a lot of equipment, just props really and mats. Dance schools. This is another way you can implement.

It depends, you might wanna implement more of a curriculum that is for the everyday child, or you can even focus in more on pre professionals. So sometimes you might wanna think of doing both. So some dance schools have very well trained dancers. You might wanna change the way you're going to approach those students because they have already a great sense of their body and how to use their body. But there are also many schools where they're not so professional in terms of they're going to have a career in dance, but it's more of a sport or recreation for them.

And you can approach it the same way that you would approach possibly in your studio if you would do a children's program there. Sports facilities and teams, you might wanna approach some of the local soccer teams. Soccer is very popular with the little kids, or I also have contacted sports teams from local high schools or middle schools, elementary schools. And I will create a program for them. Here again, it could be for the everyday child, or it can be for a pre-professional depending on the level of the sport, okay.

And there's also probably many other different options as well. Can anyone think of any. Karate schools. Karate schools, that would be a great one as well. So it's really endless.

Now, when you're trying to implement this into a private sector, this is the easiest way. Another way would do schools, that is much harder to do because a lot of times you have to go through a lot of red tape or gatekeepers. So it depends on the schools, gonna depend on how easy it is to implement into that setting. So school options are public schools, private schools, after school programs and outreach programs. I actually have done all four.

There's probably other options as well, but I would definitely say public schools are going to be the most difficult to try to implement this type of program in, especially a larger district, school district and also an urban school district, it's gonna be much more difficult to try to implement. The reason being is you have to come prepared with some sort of curriculum. You have to show the school board what the children will learn, what are their objectives that they're gonna meet, what are the learning outcomes. You have to have lesson plans already prepared, you have to have units prepared. Sometimes this is not the case, but definitely with larger school districts, this is probably something we're gonna have to do.

And you also have to find the right person. So you have to kind of like maybe talk to someone that doesn't work. Maybe I'm gonna have to go to someone else and talk to because sometimes people, they don't know anything about pilates and they kind of give you a roadblock. So then you have to see if you can find someone else who might be a little bit more accepting and might help you or aid you in your process. But definitely public schools are gonna be much harder.

I find that I do know people who do I do work in more of a rural setting or higher income setting, that might be a little bit easier. And also smaller school district will be a lot easier as well, 'cause it's easier for the school district to maintain. It's understandable though, because they don't know you, they don't know your credentials. And also it's very hard for you to come in if you don't have a teaching degree and teach. I find that when you're going to the schools, you're always will be with the teacher and that's a good thing, because that way kind of takes a lot of the responsibility of classroom management out of your hands.

You can allow the teacher to do that. But also it allows you to have another adult in the room with you to help you and to verify what is happening in the room. I have a teaching background, I have a master's in education. So for me it would be a little bit easier, but I always find it helpful to have a teacher with me. Having said that going back to the private sector, any time that I'm teaching, especially in my own the studio, I always try to have a second adult as well.

It's for your protection. So you don't want someone to say he or she pulled my child or touched my child a certain way. You need adult in the room to verify exactly what did happen. And so if you're doing it in your own studio, try to make sure that there's a second adult there. It's gonna make it easier for one, especially with the larger group.

Also, if you're gonna do at a recreation center or down school sports facility or karate studio, try to have another adult there. And there might be a little easier 'cause you can have someone who's on a staff there help you. So it's gonna help with management, but it's also gonna help in terms of protection. So I have done work in the afterschool programs. That's a lot of fun and I've also done a lot of outreach.

And outreach is also very rewarding because you can go into a variety of settings. And there it's easier to get into schools. You might not get into a school in terms of a classroom, but you can come for maybe like once a month and do a special class for them. And that's a form of outreach. And you can even write that off on your taxes at the end of the year.

So there's many benefits. Yes. (woman speaking in the background) Just what I've done is I have done, there was a school group, it's afterschool group and it was an urban inner city setting and it was all girls and they were at risk teens. And so what I did is I went to that school and work with them pro bono. So I don't charge.

You can charge for these things, but if you don't charge, I will get back to your question. But if you don't charge, when you do your taxes, you come up with a price of how much your time would have cost. And then you can take that off at the end of the year. But I worked with at-risk teens and that was probably I did that. Like I did a series, I think six weeks.

And I did like once a week. And at first it was kind of like getting used to that community, I was an outsider coming in. But by the end of the six weeks, they had improved so much. I felt rewarded. And I didn't even feel like I need to be compensated for anything because I affected their lives and you can see how much I affected their lives.

And I'm not just on the body level, but on a psychological and mental level as well. And then they asked me to come back because they loved it. And I think it's very important for people who can't maybe afford this type of program to offer your service. And that way you can help to make pilates less elitist. And Joseph Pilates wanted everyone to do this.

So it's very important to not just focus on the people who can afford it, but try to help everyone lives because also it's the inner city settings that are the populations that are most at risk for obesity and for poor health. So that's many benefits. I've done afterschool programs as well. And that's always easy because there you're not in the school. You are in the school, but you're not actually in the classroom and you have a lot of help there and you can set it up as maybe like in different ways.

You can maybe go for one week. You'd go every day after school, or you can do once a month or you can do once every other week or once a week. So it's very easy for you to manage with your schedule.

Chapter 3

And this is a quote from authors Kemmerle and Cote-Lawrence. And they have a book called Skill Acquisition. And I really liked this quote because when you're teaching children, you should not teach them as a fair an adult. So you're gonna have to alter your teaching plan. So you don't wanna go in and like get down and do the 100 right now, roll up.

It's not gonna work for them. You have to take in consideration that their body is different than your body. Their cognitive process is much different than yours or an adult. They don't have the past movement experiences that you do. So they cannot pull from those experiences.

So you have to definitely take a different approach. You wanna use a lot of imagination, you wanna use tools, props. We're gonna go into this a little more deep, but this quote, I really love 'cause I really feel like it explains it very well. This is from my studio. The last one too, a picture was also from my studio.

So the child learner and the considerations needed. So considerations are behavioral considerations, cognitive considerations, and physiological and anatomical considerations. So we're going to take a little time to go through each of these. So we're gonna talk about useful techniques in terms of behavioral considerations. In cognitive considerations, experiential learning, I'm gonna talk a little bit about, multiple levels of intelligence, the zone of proximal development, scaffolding, the more knowledgeable other, social interaction and reciprocal learning.

And these are all things that I incorporated in my curriculum. So when I was making up my curriculum, I had to support it. I had to give the background of what type of research and what type of learning processes that I was going to implement throughout my curriculum. And so this is what I focus on when I'm teaching. And we're gonna go a little bit deeper into that.

So let's talk about the biggie first. Behavioral techniques. So we're gonna talk about classroom setup and management, control in terms of low, medium, and high, and also useful control techniques, entrance and exit strategies, which are very important and also personal space, which is also very important. So let's first talk about classroom setup and management. When you're teaching children, you wanna have everything set up before they get there.

You also wanna have a clear lesson plan defined before they start. Having said that, though, I will talk about this later, you wanna be flexible with that. So you may come in with a clear lesson plan, but be able to change immediately if you see things are not going in their direction, that you wanted them to go. And you're gonna have to do a lot of that when you're working with children. You might have a plan developed already, and you're like, "Hmm, this is not going so well.

"I'm gonna have to switch." So always have a little backup plan as well. You wanna have the room set up. Like I said, when I'm working in schools, I always like to give a teacher helper and they can help set the classroom up for me. So if I'm using any sort of props, I want the props all set up because any type of down time, that's when the craziness is gonna start happening. You want your class to go, boom, boom, boom, boom.

You don't want it be going over grabbing things because that's when something happens. So have it all set up ready to go so that way there's no downtime. I cannot stress that enough. Not just in schools, but also in your studios as well. Yes.

How long does a session usually last? That's a great question. So she asked how long does the session usually last. And I would say 30 minutes to 45 minutes max. No longer than 45 minutes.

And that's even pushing it. As you work with the older children, yes, you can push it to 45 and maybe we go a little bit beyond. In older children, I mean like high school level. But definitely below 10, 30, 35 minutes. The 10 to 13 year olds, maybe can start pushing it towards 45 minutes.

And then high school age, you can maybe go to the full 55 minutes. But definitely with the group we're talking about today, the younger children you don't wanna do too long. Cause they don't have that concentration for that amount of time. And also you're gonna have to focus on different activities. You don't wanna focus on one activity for too long or else you're gonna lose them.

So that was a great question. Okay. So my teacher helper, I rotate, they love that job. So they're like, "I wanna be the teacher helper. "I wanna be the teacher helper." And you can also help them in terms of the class as well.

So you can use that. I mean, you can use the teacher helper in the class as well and make sure you do rotate it. Don't pick the same one every time. And we'll talk about this in a couple of minutes, but you can even use it, I hate to say to do this, but it is effective, you can even use it, I call it an as like a necklace, like something to dangle in front of them like, "Oh, I don't know Amy. "You're not listening to what I'm saying.

"I'm not sure if you're gonna be able "to be my teacher help her tomorrow." They're good. That's usually my last resort to dangle the necklace in front of them up but you use what you have to use. Okay. So you want to figure out what type of control you're gonna use with them. So I have to say when I'm working in a school setting, especially a lot of times in a urban school setting, I tend to use a little bit of a higher control in the beginning.

I would say to always start higher than lower because once you've lost control, you will never gain it back. So start high and cross the board actually. And then slowly move down to low. In my studio, I usually start with medium control and work my way down to low control. I never start with low control because I'm setting myself up for failure.

Especially if I'm having students over a large range of time, I need to make sure that I'm gonna maintain their control. Control is not a bad thing. And you have to be the one in charge. You are the adult. Okay?

Yes. (woman speaking in the background) Yes, so she asked how much in terms of how much structure that you put in place. So both, yes, it has to do in terms of a structure, but also in terms of discipline. And it's okay to let a student know that something is not right and you are not going to tolerate that. Because if you don't let them know what is okay and what is not okay, they're just gonna do whatever.

And they're gonna be teaching the class. You won't be teaching the class. They're not gonna be teaching. They're gonna be running the class. So yeah, discipline is not a bad thing as well.

So a couple things that I do in terms of discipline is I play games with them. One of my games is to have them find this point where they're out of control and loud and find this point when they're in control and quiet. So I called the sky club. And I tell them, "I have a special club and you guys "are all invited to join this club, "but you have to be very quiet to get into sky club. "So when I go like this, that means we can enter sky club." So then I have them make as much noise as they want and they can jump up and down and go like that.

So why don't we all stand up and do that real quick? I know that you're gonna feel stupid, but you're not in so much view of the camera, so it's okay. I'm not gonna be the stupid one up here. So everybody make it some much noise as you can. Loud as you can.

Arms failing. (all screaming loudly) Okay, that wasn't bad, but let's see how quick we can get into sky club. So make the noise and then we'll see, look when I do this and see how quick you can become quiet and controlled. So go crazy. (all screaming loudly) Go ahead as I bring my hand down, you can get crazy again.

So go crazy. (all screaming loudly) Keep going, keep going with that. So every time I bring my hand down get crazy. Every time my hand is up, controlled. So.

(all screaming loudly) (all screaming loudly) (all screaming loudly) (all screaming loudly) (laughter) Okay, so that's sky club. So then when I'm teaching and it starts to get a little bit too loud and out of control, I stand there and I go like this. And then one person sees I'm doing that. They're quiet the other ones. And they're quiet.

And they're like telling their friends, "Quiet, quiet." And it's a game, but it's effective. And this is a form of medium to low control, a little more low, but it is very effective. Another thing I do is I do a call and response and actually I do this a lot when I'm teaching my adults, when I'm doing workshops or system seminars, when I'm training my apprentices. And so what I'll do is I'm gonna teach you, first I'll teach you my call, then I'll teach you your response. So my call will be like that.

So I'm gonna do my call one more time. Then if you hear me do that, you have to go. So let's practice. (clapping) (clapping) Okay, that's pretty good. One more time.

All right. So that's another thing that I do. I'm teaching and I see that it's getting a little bit out of control, all I have to do is, (clapping) and it's quiet and everyone is still. So another form of low control that you can use, and these are very effective. I try actually really never to raise my voice.

I try to use these type of techniques. One, I find it works much better anyways, but two it's not mean. It's a game and whatever works, works, and that's a great way of getting it to work. I can't tell you enough how effective it is. And pretty much those are the two that I use the most.

Yes. (woman speaking in the background) So she wanted to know if people aren't complying to that, would I have someone sit in the corner or use another technique. And it really depends on the situation. Probably, sit in the corner might be one of the last things I would do. 'Cause you know, I have to admit, I've always remembered when I was younger, someone would have to go to the corner and they wound up being the show.

Like I remember they'd be in the corner and then they go, they started dancing and Tthey turned around and everyone would start giggling. So I find that not to be so effective, but when you have to address that you don't like their behavior. Oh, I don't really know if I like the way that you are acting right now. You can use a necklace, "John isn't working so well right now. "He's not listening.

"I'm not sure if he's gonna be able to be "a teacher helper next week." Or I have activities that they like, and we're gonna do some of them today. One is pilates bowling. That one I have to admit is like something I created and it's one of their favorites and I don't always give it to them. And if they're not behaving, I use it as an, "Christie is just not listening today. "I don't know if we're gonna be able to do play "pilates bowling today." So those are different ways.

I remember one time, this was early on when I was teaching, I had lost a little bit of control in the room, 'cause it really just takes one. Some of them are like, "I like what she's doing." And then like, it starts to infect the others. So they're running around the room. So I just went and I just sat down and I just watched them and they're looking at me like, what is this crazy person doing? So then someone else sat down, someone else sat down and then we all were sitting there and I was like, "Is it more fun what we're doing?

"or is it more fun to sit here?" And it was more fun with my activity than sitting there watching or you're, you know, so we're just sitting against the wall. So then that was a quick fix. That only happened once but I had to think on the spot, I was like, what am I gonna do? So it does happen. You can say that, "I think I'm gonna have to talk "to your parents." If you're working like in a studio setting or a setting that that's an option.

I've done that before. So sometimes I had a group of kids and I said that I was going to film them. I said, "You know what, I think I'm gonna film you guys "to just see how well you guys are doing. "I'd really love to show your parents what you're doing. "Maybe I'm gonna bring my camera in next week "and so they can see what you're doing." I wasn't really going to do it, but they're like, "My parents are gonna be watching this.

"I think I'm gonna have to get myself together." And so that was something that I used as well before. So there's many different ways you can do it. but sometimes you might have to raise your voice and show command. That's something gonna be probably, one of the last things that you would want to do but you do have to show that you are the person of authority, though, in the room as well. But try to go with one of the more lower techniques and then save the other ones for later.

If a child is not participating well, you might just have to tell their parents to talk to them and say, if they cannot participate, well, they're not gonna be able to participate at all. Yeah. Any other questions?

Chapter 4

You have to find different ways to get them in the class and to get them out of the class. You don't want them out or running in at once, you know, otherwise it's going to be a catastrophe. So you have to find interesting ways to get them in there. So sometimes what I do is I play music and I have them what lineup. And you have to make sure you always change the line of who's first too week by week or day by day.

And I had them run in every four counts. I count them off. And when they run in, they have to strike a pose and hold that pose like they're a statue. So that's something I do as well. And so I go one, two, three, four, and then they pose two, two, three, four, and the other person runs in and jumps in and poses.

And so then when I go in, I have all these different statues in the room. They're still cause you've given the image that they have to be a statue and they're not moving they're in their own personal space. And that's an a very ineffective way to get them in there because you don't get them in there and have them running around, you have them in there and they're still. Another thing that I like to do is I will maybe get a couple of them to go in at one time. And I sometimes put hula hoops on ground, or I have these little circles.

They're all different colors. They're like a little mat, but they're just little circle. And I have them find a mat or whole hoop or circle to sit down on, but I go, "Okay, everyone who has stripes on "you can go in and find a mat. "Anyone who has pink on you can go in and find a mat. "If you're wearing green, go in and find a mat." You can use this as an exit strategy as well.

Anyone who's wearing white today, you may exit the room. So then they're not all just running out of the room. Anyone wearing blue, you may exit the room. You have to be sensible about how you do this though. Because you don't want to, I've seen horrible things in schools of, 'cause this is something that they do in schools as well.

I remember one time, one of my teachers, I didn't see this, but one of my teachers was telling me about how she was observing a teacher teaching. And she said that the exit strategy was, if you had pancakes for breakfast, you may leave. If you had eggs for breakfast, you may leave. And so she did it that way. But the worst thing about is what about the child that didn't have breakfast or couldn't, you know, their parents could not afford breakfast.

You're making that child feel bad. So you have to think about those types of things. Another teacher told me of something even worse. I don't know if I should say it, but she said she would tell the children when to go out, she goes, "Okay, the pretty ones you can go." Yeah, so it's those type of things. And of course she picked up who's, you know, it was really a horrible story.

You know, don't use hair color or things like that, do something that's non offensive to anybody. And those are good ways of getting people in the room and out of the room. And you have to think like, you know, breakfast, you wouldn't think that could be a problem, but it is a problem. So you have to be sensible about it. Okay.

Hula hoops. One, you can use them, but also great thing for a personal space. So I put the whole loops down and I go... I make them find a hula hoop because there they're actually confined in something. And I know that they're cause this age group they're all over each other.

You have to separate them or otherwise someone's gonna get hurt. And that's because they're trying to get a lot of sensory information that's why children are always all over each other. Because they're getting a lot of tactile sensory information, but it's not good for your classroom. It's good for them. It's not good for your classroom.

So you have to give them a defined space and make sure that they're staying in that space and not pushing someone or hanging on someone. So I like to use hula hoops and I have them do different exercises in them. You can move in your hula hoop, maybe move on a high level, move on a low level, jump up, So you're giving your sports casting. You're giving them different things to do in their hula hoop. Eventually you can remove their hula hoop and you can do on exercise.

I call the bubble. And so technically what it is, it's their kinesthetic bubble. And I'd tell them, "Imagine you're in a big bubble, "move to the ends of the bubbles you can stay, "but you can't go out of your bubble. "You have to move within your bubble. "Can you move fast in your bubble?

"Can you move slow in your bubble? "Can you go on a low level in your bubble, "high level in your bubble? "Can you move with a strong weight in your bubble? "Can you move light like a feather?" So you're giving them different movement qualities that you might use your classroom and when you're teaching them. "Roll up light like a feather," or something.

So you're already layering your class. And so you're defining personal space, but you're also giving vocabulary that you will probably use in terms of corrections later or direction. So that's their bubble, the kinesthetic, but I don't call it the kinesthetic bubble with them. I call it the bubble. The hula hoop is a good one.

So those are all good ways of finding personal space. Sometimes you have them just stand or depending on if you're having them stand or lay down and you just have them lay down and make an X, make sure you're not touching anyone in your X or stand and make an X, make sure you're not touching anybody. I find it that it's important to start them, with younger kids, I actually usually start them sitting. So the ball exercise that we did, they're gonna have less possibilities, but I had them start passing the ball around the circle sitting, because it's a little bit easier. Later on once I know them a little bit more, we're gonna do it standing and then they have more possibilities, but I find it always best to have them sitting.

Yes, go ahead. Do you find that's easier because it helps you maintain the control in your class just to contain them? Yes. So she wanted to know if I did that because it helps to control the control of the younger child. And definitely it gives you a better sense of controlling where they are in space.

Standing there they're a little bit more to locomote. Sitting they really can't move from point A to point B so easily. Yeah, so definitely. Sometimes I do an exercise called the pizza exercise or the sundae exercise or the soup exercise. And we all sit in a circle and we make different movements.

"I'm going to make a pizza and on my pizza," we're all sitting in a circle. I go, this one, I go, "We're going..." And also they're all sitting criss cross applesauce, but I tell them, "We're going chop up some mushrooms." That's what I'm gonna add to the pizza. I'm gonna go chop, chop, chop, chop, I'm gonna toss it on. So then everyone has to chop, chop, chop, chop toss it on. The next person, maybe they're gonna, they always like to put meatballs on the pizza.

I don't know why. 'Cause I've never heard of a meatball pizza. I mean, maybe it's out there. but the go, "I'm gonna put meatballs" and they throw meatballs. Then people wanna put sprinkles.

They put all sorts of stuff in their pizzas. Sprinkles, ice cream. And I'm like, "That's gonna be a very tasty pizza." But like, I mean, not really but yeah. Let them know that their contribution is a good contribution to the pizza, but they're all finding their own movement. They're working their creative process.

They're focusing on not just themselves, but someone else's movement because we have to do my movement then my movement and the second person's movement. My movement, the second person's movement, the third person's movement. And so that way you're getting them to learn how to see movement and recreate it. You're also getting them to focus. They're stationary, they're not moving, they're using their imagination and they're creating.

So it's a very effective exercise to do. I find too, that in terms of management, it's better not to have too large of a group. Sometimes out of your control. If you're in a school setting, you might have 30 children in your class. Luckily you have the teacher to help you though.

And you have to make sure they help you, 'cause they're getting paid. Sometimes they think it's coffee break time, but you have to make them help you because it is their classroom, it's not your classroom. But I would say if you're working in a private setting or like your own studio and you can control how many kids I would say about eight is a good number as maximum. No more than 10. I mean, it's good to have at least about four, but I find also, like I said to have, a helper.

Not just the student teacher helper but an adult helper. And then if you do go above 10, maybe it's you need two helpers. You definitely need some adults to help control the environment. Okay, so any questions. In terms of boys and girls, do you find that they have an equal number or both is good or the other, the dynamics interchange, I'm sure.

Yes, so she wants to know in terms of boys and girls, whether an equal number is good, or if it's not equal, if the dynamic changes drastically and it definitely is a little bit better if it's a little more equal, but it doesn't always happen. But I usually haven't found much of a problem though. And the boys really liked the pilates actually. And because it's something that's not girly. And a lot of the things you can do and you can play with them.

It's fun And actually I find a lot of times I'm not being sexist, but I do buy a lot of time they actually, they participate a little bit better than sometimes the girl, cause they're little bit more outgoing in a way sometimes. And they're a little bit more apt to try something that's new to them. But normally I don't find it's a problem actually. And I'm at a younger age group. It's okay to mix them together.

As you get older, you might want to, like middle school, high school, it might be better for them to maybe be all girls or all boys, depends on the maturity level. That just made me think of something else. Have you ever incorporated like older kids with younger kids and having the older ones assist you in teaching the young children? Okay, so she wanted to know if I ever incorporated older or younger children in the same environment and maybe have the older children assist in teaching. Yes and no.

Sometimes what I do, and I'll talk a little bit about this later, is I always put a age range. So to part of your question, no, I won't have the older child come in assist. Not that you can't do it but I always find it's better to have a adult. And sometimes the liability of having an older child there it might increase the liability a little bit. It could be okay, but it could be a problem as well.

But I do always put a range. Maybe it's like four and five year olds or four or five, six year olds or seven to nine year olds. And I try to pair where I think that they're gonna be able to interact with each other. And then it's good to have like, not all just four year olds are all five-year-olds because they will learn from each other. And so naturally the older child will take more of a leadership role and they will be able to teach.

And then the younger child, I mean, it's a small gap in the age range, but I do that on purpose. And it's something called the more knowledgeable other, which is part of the zone of proximal development, which is a educational theory made by a guy named Lev Venaski. And the older child is learning and reaffirming the information because he has or she has to teach it to the younger child or help instruct to the younger child or help make sense to the younger child. And then the younger child is learning because a lot of times they can learn better from another child than they can from an adult. So it is good to always have, like that's how the whole Montessori system works actually is based on that.

And so it's definitely good to have, I like to have that little age range. So then I can really apply that zone of proximal development. That's a good question. Any other questions? Have you taught a lot of high school kids?

I have. She wanted to know if I have taught a lot of high school children, I pretty much have crossed taught across the board. My specialty definitely is working with younger children, but I do work with high school children as well. And middle school. I would probably say that high school was probably the age group that most people will.

It's easier to get into teaching high school children. Middle school, that's the age range that can go so many different ways. So the way I find it the hardest to teach, I don't find high school the hardest, I find actually the middle school age children the hardest, like 11 to 13 year olds. In my experience, that's what I find to be the hardest. I actually find the younger children to be the easiest because they have less inhibitions.

They just do. I mean, even more than adults. Sometimes I'm like, "Oh wy can't my adults do when my little kids..." They get the movement, you give them something like, And they just do it. And so, and they're not afraid. They're not afraid what about their body or about, you know that they're not doing something right.

They just do it. And so I find that I personally find that the younger kids are the easiest. Someone else might find it different. And we all have our strengths too. And it's good to know your strength too.

You know, "Okay, I don't know if I like little kids so much." So don't teach little kids. (laughter) Go to your strength. Gabby Corey always talks about working within your strength. Like she does an exercise called finding your strength. It applies in so many levels.

Okay, so any other questions? Okay, so let's move on then. So a technique I use a lot is something called fish bowling. And so when I'm teaching children, what I like to do is I like to, I like circles because everyone can see everybody and we're all part of something and I can see everybody. And so then what I do sometimes is I will, to teach an exercise.

I just don't get up and teach it. I will do that, I will teach the exercise. And then maybe what I'll do is I'll teach someone the exercise, maybe my star helper or maybe my assistant who's helping me. I'll teach the exercise in the middle of that fishbowl, where everyone can see. And then that way, or I'll pick two students, I'll do it first with my assistant.

Then I'll take two students and I'll have them do it in the middle. And so that way everyone can see what the exercise is going to look like. And when I do it with two students, I sports cast. So I give a play by play of what's happening. And did you notice I did that in the second round, when we did passing the ball?

I said, exactly what everyone was doing. And so I was reaffirming what they were doing was right. And I was giving vocabulary to them, to you guys, and you have to sports cast, give them a play by play of what is going on. And then you can also help, like, so maybe they're going too fast and no one's going to pick it up. You can put that in your sports casting.

Somebody is going a little bit too quick. So I'm not sure if we can follow that movement quite so. Well, there we go. And I can see that Amy is lifting her arms up and she's pulling one year into her chest and now she's pulling the other knee into her chest. So that's another useful way of to put sports casting into your teaching.

So you can let them know when something might not be so good or when they are doing something good. And I always point out the good. I do in game called mirror mirror. I go mirror, mirror on the wall who can follow best of all. And they have to follow different movements.

But if someone's, you know, suddenly, you know, doing something like that, which they love to do, they love to stand there and they'd like to fall. Then I lifted it up and they fall. And so I have to sports cast and try to clear them a little bit out of that one. So fish bowling and sports casting are gonna be very useful techniques for you. Yes.

So fishbowling is sitting in a circle and there's people in the center? Yeah, making a circle. So she wanted to know what the fish bowling is. It is making a circle when you're going to do a new exercise. That's where the demonstration happens, is in the middle of the circle.

So then everyone has a clear understanding of how to do the activity or exercise. So I talked about different theories that I use

Chapter 5

It's continuity. All experiences are carried forward and influence experience. And then there's also interaction. Present experiences arise out of the relationship between the situation and the individual is stored past. So if I'm working in an urban setting, I'm not going to give a lot of imagery of the country, or I'm not gonna say, if I'm working with someone in Iowa, I want you to move like a subway.

They're not gonna be willing to relate to that. So I have to select my, I mean, there's many levels of this, but I need to select my use of imagery in a very productive way that's gonna benefit everybody. I'm going to pull on their past experiences and create exercises that they have had some sort of background in or knowledge in. I'm also going to add on to those experiences and remind them of what we did prior. So that's experiential learning.

Any questions, yes. And then tying that experience to present. And tying that. Yes and then tying that into their present. So a lot of it has to do with reflection, but then tying that into the present situation, yes.

I also incorporate Howard Gardners theory. And Howard Gardner is another educational theorist. And he talks about multiple levels of intelligence and a model of intelligence that differentiates intelligence into various specific primarily sensory modalities, rather than seeing it as dominated by a single general ability. And so he created a lot of different intelligences or not created, categorized. And there's spatial, linguistic, logical mathematical, bodily, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, interpersonal, and naturalistic.

And if we think about our educational system, what two of those do we focus on in schools? Linguistic and logical mathematical. So we're doing a big disservice to a whole large population of other people who maybe that's not their strength. And maybe if I wanna teach something that's logical mathematical, I will do it in a musical way or tie it to nature. So when I'm teaching my classes, I have to keep in mind that not everyone learns the same.

And when I activities I choose have to cater to all these different intelligences. So what I try to do is I try to like mode everything together. So I will incorporate an activity that has music in it, something where they have to use some sort of, I mean not, I mean, they're not doing algebra, but like some sort of mathematical problem. Obstacle courses are great with those types of things. I will maybe involve some sort of something that has to do with nature, this is all within one exercise.

Sometimes I incorporate it linguistic. I haven't a game, I called the amazing race. And do you guys know that TV show the amazing race? So what I did is I created a game and I always start with the music, I have the music theme song, as far as I start playing the theme song while they're doing the exercise. The theme song is going, so actually that's putting a little music involved.

And then what I do is I have these little cards for them. This is not for the four year olds, but this is for like the seven, eight, nine year olds, 10 year olds. And on the back I put, their yellow, I put the Amazing race logo that I just printed out, like clip art and past it on these index cards. And I give them things to do, so I'm actually incorporating linguistic into it because they have to read the roadblocks. That's what they are.

I mean, I don't know if anyone's ever seen that show. And I give them different activities. So they have to go to Cone one. They're go to cone one, spin around three times, spin around three times the other way. I'm also incorporating bodily kinesthetic.

I'm focusing on the spinning on working in heightening their vestibular sense. Children always spin roll around because what they're doing is they're trying to hide in a very primitive sense that we'd tell them to stop doing that and they lose it. But there are vestibular sense. Something in terms of a naturalistic, maybe one of the roadblocks, there's some sort of imagery. I would draw a line on the tape on the floor and I say, this is a log and you have to cross from one side of the valley to the other side of the valley without falling off.

So there's many different ways to try to incorporate different things into one, even just one exercise. So that's one example. And now when I called the Amazing race. And you have to come up with these little exercises, be creative. They love that one and all it is is an obstacle course.

And I have like six roadblocks and they're reading, they're learning, they're working on their body. I'm working on appropriate assumption, I'm working on the vestibular sense. I'm working on balance. I do a lot of balanced things in the Amazing race exercise. So these are just type of activities you can do.

We'll talk a little bit more about activities later when I talk about lesson planning. So any questions about multiple levels of intelligences. So if you think yourself when you're teaching even other adults, apply this. Maybe when you're teaching someone, you're being very verbal with them, maybe they're not a verbal learner. Maybe they're more of a kinesthetic learner, they reply better to tactile feedback rather than verbal feedback.

So think about that, it just doesn't work on children, it also works on adults as well. So the zone of proximal development, I talked a little bit about. And the zone of proximal development is the difference between what a learner can do

Chapter 6

So a lot of my things I do are group work or partner work. And so this way, I make sure that they can learn from another individual and I'm there as well. So it kind of is like three different people. I'm there to oversee that thing, that the learning process is actually happening. And there's another end to this or part of this.

And that's the MKO, the more knowledgeable other. It refers to anyone who has a better understanding or higher ability level than the learner with respect to a particular task, process or concept. The MKO, the more knowledgeable other can be a teacher, it can be a peer, it could be a parent, a sibling, or even a computer or a television. That can be the more knowledgeable other that they can learn from. And you can incorporate in many multi media type things into your classes.

All right, so another thing that I do is something called scaffolding. So scaffolding is the provision of sufficient support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being first introduced to students, supporters are graduate... Support, sorry are gradually removed as students develop autonomous learning strategies, thus promoting their own cognitive effective and psychomotor learning skills and knowledge. And this is something I do with adults, but you have to do with children as well. You don't just give them the 100, you give them pieces of the 100.

And over time they can do the a hundred. You have to dissect the exercise, use tools, use props, and then later put it together and look, they're doing the 100. No problem if you would ask them to just do it, it probably would not have been successful. So all of my classes I've taken exercise and I do a piece of it or concept or skill of that exercise. And then maybe I'd do another skill somewhere else.

Then I'm slowly putting it together and building on top of it, like a scaffold of a building. And then eventually I can do a task that incorporates all of those skills. And maybe it's an exercise like the single leg stretch or the double leg stretch or something like that. But I had to find a strategy to get there. Does that make sense?

Okay, great. I'm going a little bit along zone of proximal development. I always try to incorporate social interaction 'cause children learn from each other and actually they learn best from each other. So a social interaction helps to create community and culture as well as the establishing of rules. So where did we do that already?

The circle, when we were passing the ball around. I was creating community. We had our culture of our classroom and I was establishing rules that we weren't gonna be running around everywhere, we were focusing on staying in one spot. Reciprocal learning. Reciprocal learning calls for working with a partner, but not a partner in a random array of roles, but one who is actively and specifically engaged in the decision making.

There is a doer and a teacher and a teacher partner. Students make post impact decisions that evaluate their execution of a task. So I have different activities that I do because you can't just do plaudits with them, like a exercise they'll match. Don't do that intermediate mat right now. You have to, I mean, they're not gonna have fun, they're not gonna wanna do it.

Do you want them to have fun and learn and enjoy moving. So you have to create little activities that incorporate pilates into it. I do something and exercise that, actually, I got this one from a teacher of mine. It was a dance exercise, but I incorporated into pilates, it's called snake charmer. Can I use somebody to, yes.

So, this is you and you're gonna do exactly what the towel does. So I'm gonna put it on the floor. since you're on the floor and you're gonna jump. Teaser. Teaser up again.

So that's snake charmer and that's a reciprocal learning. And then we switch it and you have to learn and make sure you give them even time. I put music on because I'm trying to incorporate a lot of things when they're doing it. But definitely give them equal time because they will protest. And they know when you've given more time.

"That's not fair, she had longer time to do it." 'Cause they loved being the snake charmer. 'Cause they love telling people what to do. So it's a really effective thing. Mirror mirror is another one I do where they have to follow someone. Or I have a game called pilates says, which is Simon says, pilates says put one knee into the chest, pilates says place it down.

Pilates says pull the other knee into the chest, pilates says, place it down. Pull the first knee up, pilates is gonna say. So that's another thing you can do. And that's including a whole group working and learning with each other. And what was I doing?

I was doing the single leg stretch, just standing. So many ways you can incorporate the Pilates' work without having to do just this plain Pilates' work using your imagination. They're still getting the benefit of their core. They're still getting the stretch and they're working on their balance. All right, so physiological and anatomical considerations.

The approach of teaching a child is greatly different than an adult on a body level. There are limitations to their growing body, lack of past motor learning experiences and immature perception and proprioception skills. So this is just to stress again, that their body is different than ours. Their body is still growing. Their muscle.

Their bones are still hardening and lengthening. Their muscles are still lengthening. Their joints are not the same as our joints. Their ligaments are a little bit more loose than our ligaments are. There are little necks, I always see people trying to teach children and they're like, they can't lift their neck up for that long.

So I put a little ball underneath their head and use that as a pillow. Eventually maybe they can lift their head up off that ball, but you have to remember that their body is not the same as our body and we have to treat it so, okay. So any questions, Lesson planning. Plan, plan, plan ahead. Do not go in blindly.

You will regret it. Please have something planned ahead. Keep it moving. One task, no more than a minute, a minute and a half, or you're gonna lose them at this younger age group. Don't make something so complicated for them.

You're gonna lose them by trying to explain what they're doing. Use fish bowling to help explain something and keep the task fairly simple. Plan activities. Things like snake charmer, mirror mirror, pilates says. So then it's just not the exercises alone, but you're doing activities.

I have another exercise that's very similar to snake charmer that I created. I call it spaghetti and movement and I use pool noodles. And instead of the scarf or the towel, they're bending the pool noodles around and they're doing the same thing. So get it like spaghetti in like it's we gotta go to the noodles. So instead of the meatballs movement and spreading.

And be flexible. Not just flexible in your body, but be flexible to change something like that. You see something as not going how you expected, okay, let's pull this one out and do this activity instead. You have to be able to change your plan quickly. Any questions?

So we're gonna move on to a little bit of movement now. So this is the practical applications part. We're gonna talk a little bit about body scans. Warm up. Bodies exercises, using props, partner pilates, activities.

We'll go, just talk a little bit about, 'cause we did a couple of activities already. Games and incorporating a cooldown.

Chapter 7

That's pretty good. And you can come back down. So in my pocket, where is it? Oh, here it is. I have an imaginary ball and we're gonna pass this ball around in a circle and let's see, my imaginary ball is green and it has yellow stripes on it and it has light stars.

And I can pass this ball in many different ways. Maybe I can dribble it like a basketball and pass it to you or maybe I can juggle, I can go underneath the leg. Maybe it's very, very heavy and I have to give it to you that way. Or maybe it's light like a feather. So any way you wanna give the ball to your next door neighbor, you can do that.

So I'm gonna let's see what, where did that ball out here? It is. Okay, so I'm gonna pass the ball to you. I think I'm gonna do some circles. And I'm gonna pass to Ashlyn.

And Ashlyn you can pass it any way you like to Aiden. She threw it a little bounce there. Erin, any way you liked to Ava here. A little toss there. That's a great catch.

And how are you gonna give it to me? Oh, it's heavy. Okay. So I'm gonna put this ball here for now and we're gonna all have a ball and I didn't know this, but I gave you guys the ball and it's all by your side. So pick up your ball.

I felt that. So what does your ball look like? This ball that I have here, this one actually is orange and it has a big red circle right on the top of it. What is your ball look like? It is blue with and blue pieces on it.

Oh cool, what about yours? Mine is orange with red stripes. Orange and red stripes. Mine is turquoise with (indistinct) Turquoise. That's nice.

Turquoise is actually one of my favorite colors. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take this ball and we're just going to bounce the ball up and down like so. While you bounce the ball, you're gonna bend your knees. Good, and bounce and bounce and bounce. Like you're bouncing a basketball, but you're actually bouncing your own ball.

Now, hold the ball again. So this is an imaginary ball and there's certain things you could do with an imaginary ball that you can not do with a real ball. One thing you can do is you can swallow it. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna swallow the ball and we're gonna bounce it around in our head. So bounce the ball around the head.

Maybe it goes side to side forward and back. Maybe we're gonna circle the ball and around in our head. Let's circle it the other way. Good. Now take your head and we're gonna put the ball in our neck and we're gonna move the neck around.

Move that ball around in your neck. Good. Let's take the ball. We're gonna put it in our chest and you're gonna bounce the ball around in your chest. Bounce, maybe side to side.

Maybe forward back, maybe we can make a circle. You can't do the circle? Try forward and back maybe. Okay, that's all right. We're gonna put the ball in our tummies.

Just gonna move the ball around in your tummy. And now let's take the ball, we're gonna put it to a leg. We're just gonna shake it around in one leg. Now you're gonna take the ball, put it in the other leg and just shake it around. And we're gonna take the ball and you're gonna put it in your arm.

So now it's in our arm, let's see, I'm gonna lift that up and we're gonna circle the ball around in our arm. It's going up and down our arm. Let's reverse that circle. Okay. Let's take it.

And we're gonna take the ball and we're gonna put it in the other arm. And then let's circle that one around. Good. And then reverse the circle. And now we're gonna take the ball and we're gonna put it and it's split now.

I have two balls. We're gonna place it in our feet. You're gonna shake your feet. We're gonna shake it in our knees, shake it our hips, shake it in your tummy, shake your whole body, arms up and make noise. And we're gonna get rid of the ball.

Now what we're gonna do is we're going to get rid of it. So we're gonna throw it out the window. So, well, his is already gone. I'm gonna wind mine up and I'm gonna toss mine. How are you gonna get rid of yours, Ava?

I'm gonna toss it. You're gonna toss yours too. And Ashley, how're you gonna get rid of yours? Just throw it out the other window. Okay.

That's an independent thinker. So let's stand at the back of our mats and we're going to do a breathing dance. So we're gonna walk forward five times. First, we're gonna walk forward, one, two, three, four. Let's put fifth one into the center.

Now let's walk back. One, two, three, four, five. Let's do that one more time. Walk forward, one, two, three, four, five. Lett's put in the middle.

Walk back, one, two, three, four, five. Now imagine your body is like a balloon. You're gonna breathe in and you're gonna expand the balloon as we walk. So we're gonna expand the balloon as we walk one, breathe in, breathe in, breathe in, breathe in, five. And we'll walk back in, deflate the balloon.

Make all they air come out. Let's go a little quicker now. So breathe in, breathe out, Breathe in and get big. Breathe out, breathe in, breathe out. Good.

All right, so let's go on to our hands and our knees and we're gonna be cats. So let bring your hands on the map. Bring your needs on the mat. And I want you guys to round your back, like an angry cat. Now lift your head up with your bottom up and we're happy cats.

Maybe shake your tail if you want. Happy cats. All right. Around the back, angry cat and arch your back, happy cat. And around the back, angry cat and arch the back, happy cat, angry cat, happy cat, angry cat, happy cat.

Oh, we're still happy cat. Angry cat. Happy cat, angry cat. All right, and now what we're gonna do is we're going to sit on our seat. That was a cool way to get there.

You're gonna grab your ankles and then you're gonna flutter your wings. Maybe you're a bird. Maybe you're a butterfly. What are we doing? You're gonna ask us rather than I go on then fly.

Yes we were. Where are you gonna go? I going to go to my friend's house. Cool. I'm gonna go to Italy.

Cause I like it there. Where are you gonna go? I don't know. You're gonna go to, I don't know city. And what about you?

I'm gonna go to Mexico. I like Mexico too, actually. So I think we've gotten there. And what we're gonna do is we're going to gaze at the stars at your destinations. So at your friend's house, at I don't know city, Mexico and Italy.

We're just gonna look at the stars and then let's maybe look the other way. We're gonna stargaze. And now you're gonna look at the stars and look at the other way. All right, now let's look at the ground. Circle your head and look at the stars.

Look at the ground. Circle the head, look at the stars. One more time, look at the ground and look at the stars. Last time, let's look at the ground and look at the stars. Good, helicopter arms.

And we're gonna twist the helicopter one way. Then the other way and maybe we're gonna go a little bit slower because we're just starting to warm up to get off that ground. But maybe now we go to low, quicker, and little quicker. There we go. Now we're gonna be an airplane and we're gonna go to one side, go to the other side, one side and let's fly lean to the other side.

An airplane is gonna go one way as then the other way. Good. And then we're gonna dive in the water. We're gonna lift up and let's just let all the water fall off of us. And I'll lift your arms up, dive in the water, lift up, let all the water just fall off.

One more time, lift the arms up, dive in the water, and arms up and let the water just fall off. Good. Let me just shake out a little bit more water. It's still a wet. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna say hello to our toes.

Hello, toes and goodbye toes. Hello, toes. Goodbye, toes. Hello, one foot. Goodbye to the toes on that foot.

Hello the other foot, goodbye. Hello, now switch. Good, switch. This is very good. This is hard to do.

Switch, switch, switch. Hello to all 10 toes, goodbye to all 10 toes. Reach the arms forward like so, and we are mummies. Do you know what a mummy is? In Egypt and it's wrapped with cloth and we're going to walk back like a mummy All the way back.

Good. Now walk forward. It doesn't have to be big. You're doing great, everybody. Now we're gonna walk back quickly.

That's okay. We'll walk forward quickly. Now walk back slow like you're moving through quick sand or jello. I like jello. What's your favorite type of jello flavor?

Orange. Orange, I like orange too actually. What about you? Let's go through jello back again. Cherry.

Cherry. cherry is a good one too. What about you, Ava. I like orange grape. Orange grapes.

Good one too. I think I like grape as well and walking forward through jello. Great. And let's just shake out. And now what I wanna do is I'm going to have an assistant come.

So, who wants to be my assistant. We're gonna watch and see how well they deal. Okay. She's gonna lay down onto my mat. On my back?

And I'm gonna put a little duck on her stomach and I'm gonna tell her. That's okay. Pull your stomach in. Sink your stomach so that duck can swim and release. Sink your stomach so that duck can swim and release.

'Cause if we don't sink our stomach, the duck can't swim. One more, sink the stomach so the duck can swim and release. Thank you. It was lighting up. If I shake it and lights up.

It's pretty cool one, right? Thank you.

Chapter 8

Sink, sink, sink, yes, very good, and release. Sink your belly button so that duck, excellent. And sink your belly button so that duck, very nice. You guys are good sinkers. All right, and now what you're gonna do is you're gonna arrest there and I'm gonna give everyone a ball.

So, and you can catch and catch. Sorry about that. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna bring our feet onto the mat and you're gonna put the ball behind you like a pillow and you're gonna bring your arms straight out in front of you. You okay there, Ashton? Okay, now squeeze your knees together.

Bring the feet and route them into them earth and pump your arms, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Again, pump two, three, four, sometimes it's hard to stay there, six, seven, eight, let's switch. This one's a little better and good. That one's better, right? And pump, two, three, four, five, six, and Ashton, bring your feet onto the floor like this.

Yes. 10 now, blow the balloon up as you pump, blow the balloon up, up, up, up, up, and blow the balloon out. Inflate the balloon and deflate the balloon. Inflate the balloon, two, three, four, five, deflate the balloon, two, three, four, five. Good.

Take your ball and reach it up to the sky and stretch your legs straight. Put the ball on your stomach and roll the ball up your body. Very good. You can do it, you can do it. No detours.

There we go. Roll the ball down. Good. Roll the ball up, that's better. First one's always the hardest one.

And roll the ball back down. Let's do two more. Roll the ball up, stretch your back and roll the ball down. Let's do one more. Roll the ball up and hold there.

Great. So can I have your balls for a second? Thank you. Thank you. Great.

Now what we're gonna do is we're gonna keep the ball and we're gonna all, you guys gonna, wellI'll keep the ball and you we're gonna all roll down. So roll down on the mat and roll up as best as you can. If you need to bend your knees, you can do that too. And I'm gonna throw the ball to Aiden. Now, roll down and roll back up, and Aiden, you could throw it to somebody new.

Just gonna throw it to the little sneak attack there. And roll down and roll up. And you're gonna throw it to Ava. Good catch, roll down and roll up, Ava, you can throw it to me. Good.

And if you guys need to bend your knees to help you come up, you can do that, it's not cheating. Okay, so let's do that one more time. We're gonna go just a little bit quicker and always make sure you throw with two hands, but we've got to also make sure that our person who's gonna catch is ready for it too, okay? So no sneak attacks and I'll roll down, roll up and catch. Roll down and Aiden throws to Ashton and catch up.

I wouldn't say third time's a charm, but that was pretty good. One more time, roll down, roll up. And you're going to through it to, it's raining, I know to Ava. Good catch. All right, guys.

So what I'm gonna have you guys do is you're gonna lay down on the floor and now lift your right arm up. Do you guys know where your right arm? That's good. Now lift your left arm up. Now, bring that arm down, lift your right leg up.

Good. And now what we're gonna do is there's a marker on our toe and we're gonna draw a little circle on the ceiling with our toe. Let's draw another one too. And just draw the circle on the ceiling. It can be a couple circles.

If you like it doesn't have to be the same circle each time and reverse, let's go the other way. Drawing more circles on the ceiling. Very good, guys. We're gonna try to keep our leg very straight. Our marker, very straight.

Let's change legs. So the other leg up and now let's draw little circles on the ceiling. Do you see those circles you're drawing pretty good, guys. And then reverse the circle too. That's a big circle there.

Over four and five. Okay guys, what you're gonna do is you're gonna crawl up your legs. Good. I'm gonna give you guys a ball again. There you go.

All right, here you go. And you're gonna hug your ball. I remember doing this. You remember doing this. I have all sorts of surprises.

So what we're gonna do, if you can, doesn't have to be big, you can hold here, you can hold here. Hold here, just got to keep the ball. You're gonna rock and roll. Not bad. Okay.

Let's try it again. Rock and roll. There we go. Good. Rock and roll.

You guys are amazing. Let's do three more rock and roll. I almost lost mine. And two more, rock and roll. And one more.

That's a good catch. Good save. Rock and roll. Okay, so what we're gonna do is we're going to divide into groups and let me have my star helper again. I'm gonna show you what we're gonna do.

So I'm gonna be your partner, Aiden. And then when have the ladies be partners? Yes, I'm gonna have you face me and we're gonna scoot into each other so pretty much both of our feet are about here. Then we're gonna roll down. We might need to scoot in a little bit more and you're gonna bring your feet together.

Now, bring your hands behind your head. Like you're watching TV and now I'm gonna stretch one leg. I'm gonna stretch my right leg and you're gonna stretch your left leg. Then we're gonna change. One, change, two, change.

And we're just gonna push and pull each other. And our goal is to always try to make sure we keep contact with our feet. Good. And no we're gonna hug our knees and rest. Then we're gonna do another one.

And then we'll lift our heads up like we're watching TV. Now I'm gonna push, you're gonna pull in. Change. Change and change, change. One more time.

Change and both knees in. Great. So that's how the lady first. So let's have the latest go first. You guys are gonna bring your feet together and lay on your back and scoot in a little bit.

Good. And now what you're gonna do is you're gonna lift your feet up like so, and then let's have you stretch. You ban one and now bring your hands behind your head and look like you're looking at TV. So look at your knees, lift your head up. There we go.

Good. Pull, I'm gonna let my hands go. Pull, pull. Good. Now, both knees come together.

I'm gonna have Ash and you're gonna press and then you're gonna pull in. Change one. And can you guys lift your head up? There we go. Good.

Change, change, change, change, change. And yeah, I'm good, and both knees in. All right, so our turn. So we're to and bring our feet together and we're gonna look at TV. I'm gonna stretch my right leg, you're gonna stretch your other leg.

Good. Change. One, change and change. Good, change, change. Two more, change, change, and change.

Now I'm gonna stretch both my legs. Bend both your knees, change. Good, change, two and two, push and pull. Two more, push. Good.

One more time. Good. Bend your knees into the chest and hug your knees. Great. So let's take our balls right.

There we go. And you're gonna place it in front of you and we're gonna make a V with our legs. Great. And now what you're gonna do is you're going to roll forward and roll back up and roll forward, roll back up. One more time, roll forward and roll back up.

Now, put the ball on the other on your right leg, your left leg, doesn't matter and now round forward, roll up switch and other side and come up, switch and around forward, roll up, switch and around forward and roll up. Okay, can I have the balls for now. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you.

So star helper. We're gonna sit back to back and now what we're gonna do is I'm gonna have our arms go in front of us like mummies. And now we're gonna roll away from each other, reaching our heads between our legs forward towards the floor. Now we're gonna roll up and try to find the wall. So we'll do that.

Then we're gonna add on, she's gonna roll backwards. I'm gonna roll forward and her arm is gonna lift up in the air and then she's gonna circle her arms to the side and down. Good. And then I'm gonna roll back. She's gonna roll forward and then I'm gonna circle around and down, like so, okay. So ladies first, why did you guys work together?

So I won't crush you, don't worry. So you're gonna stretch the legs, and you're gonna open the feet, like a V like a letter V good letter, like, like a, it is a letter in round four back and you're gonna let your arms go back and circle around and you get a nice stretch there, Ava. Now round the other way and reach your arms back and stretch. And I missed one that's okay, but let's just start this one around and I'll lift the arms up and around and now Ava, you can roll back and circle the arms. Good. Now sit back to back like mummies.

Good. Roll away from each other. Yes. And roll towards each other. Yes.

And again, roll away. Very good guys and road towards good. One more roll away. Nice. And around to each other.

Good. All right, our turn. I'll be nice. So why don't you sit here? Okay, so I'll let you roll...

Let's roll away from each other first. So bring the arms for like mummy and roll away from me. I'll roll away from you. And then let's roll into each other. And again, roll away from me and road towards me.

Now I'm going around forward, you're gonna roll backwards. So I'll roll forward, you roll back towards me and then circle your arms. And then I'm gonna roll back. You're gonna roll forward and I'm gonna circle my arms and again, and yes, circle the arms and one more time and I will circle my arms. Good.

So, yeah. It's nice, right? Okay, so one more exercise with the ball and miss Ava.

Chapter 9

You're gonna lay onto your stomach. You have a loose tooth. I see that. You're gonna bring your hands down on the yes. And now you're gonna come up straight arms.

Now stick your tongue out. And hiss like a snake and come down. Now, come up, take your tongue out, hiss like a snake and I'm coming down one more time. Roll up, stick your tongue out. Good.

All right, sit back on to your heels and stretch out your back like the rock. Good. That's good. Like, ah, Ava and yeah, there we go, very nice. Okay.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the wall. So let's put all the balls back into here. Thank you. And let's go to this wall here and you know, what I'm thinking I'm gonna do is, let's bring our mats as well. And we're gonna put them side by side.

It's a little, put this one down. You guys are good at helpers. And then the next one, like we're putting a quilt together. And then the next one, maybe not yet. That's gonna come in weeks to come and now that'd be put this one down.

All right, so what I want you guys to do is you're gonna lay down on your back and you're gonna bring your feet against the wall like so. Then what are we gonna do? You're about to find out, but I think you're gonna like it. So good. Now you don't wanna be too close to the wall because the closer you are, the harder it's gonna be.

So if you find it's a little hard, you can always move away. You're gonna put your hands on your legs and you're gonna crawl up your legs. So the spiders are gonna crawl up the mountain. There we go. And now spiders crawl down the mountain.

Spiders crawl up the mountain and spiders crawl down the mountain. One more, spiders crawl up the mountain, hold there, open your legs, and you can hold lower the rocking chair, push away from the wall, dome back up, bring up. Maybe we don't go quite so far back now. That's rock like a rocking chair, rock back. And then just rock that forward and bring your feet against the wall.

Good. Push away or rock back and roll back up. Good. One more time. We're rock back. Rock back up.

Good. And now you're gonna lay down on your back. I'm gonna share you what you're going to do in the next one. You're going to, you can walk up if you need to, but you're gonna lift up the wall like a toll bridge, and then it's gonna come back down, okay. So let's do the toll bridge.

So you are going to lift up the wall like a bridge and come back down. Maybe come a little bit closer, Ashton and maybe Ava, a little closer there. Gonna come a little closer to the wall. There you go. That will make it easier on this one.

Good, and one more time. We'll lift up the wall and roll down the wall. Now I'm gonna switch places with Aiden. So we're going to do troll underneath the bridge. I'm gonna try my best.

Let's see how well I do. Okay. So let's do the same thing we just did. So you're gonna lift up and now I'm a troll and I have to crawl underneath the bridge, but you can't come down on me. You guys are making it good.

And now you can come down, roll that way. So we switched places. Now, toll bridge, climb up the wall and you're gonna crawl underneath. You're the troll going underneath the bridge. Oh, this up.

Someone's being mean good. You're almost through, good. And we're all gonna roll that way. I'm not gonna roll though, 'cause my mic will get messed up. All right, now, climb up the wall.

And now the troll goes underneath the wall, underneath the bridge. This troll's moving a little slow. That's good. Now that was good. All roll one way.

And now we have one more trolled to climb underneath. So go underneath. Good. And we'll all roll one more time. And now we're gonna climb up the wall and now you can bring your hands underneath your hips if you need to.

One leg off and on, other leg off and on, one leg off and on, other leg off. One more time, right leg and left leg and roll down. Good. Let's stand up. We're gonna stand against the wall and you're going to walk your feet out and now arms forward.

And the elevator is gonna go down. Maybe not all the way down though. Maybe just about you're sitting in a chair. Now, elevator goes up, elevator goes down. Elevator goes up, elevator goes down.

Okay, we're down now, we're gonna take our steering wheel. We're gonna start driving our car. Driving along, turn right and center driving along, turn left center, driving left and center. Right, and right. I tricked you guys.

Now driving and walk back. Good. All right, so we're gonna go back to the center and let's move the mats again. Let's make our four petal flower here. All right, very good job, guys.

Good at construction I see. Okay, cool, I'm gonna give you a little help. Someone's thirsty. We have to stay hydrated, that's very important. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna play mirror mirror.

So you're gonna look at me and now mirror mirror on the wall who can follow best of all. So you have to do exactly what I do. I didn't hear that. There we go. And now it's direct center.

Oh, stretch center. One more, stretch and center. Good, let's put the mats together now. We're gonna like we did before, but we'll just put them this way. And then yes.

And let's bring them all side by side and we're gonna play some bowling. You guys know how to bowl? But we're gonna do a little different type of bowling. We're gonna do pilates bowling. So I want you guys to sit down on the mat and let me have my star helper for a second.

So she's gonna demonstrate, and you're gonna sit on the mat too. Good. Now what you're going gonna do is you're gonna take your rolling like a ball position, your rock and roll position. Good. Now you can rock forward.

You can rock backwards and come up. You can rock to this side either side and you can rock to the other side if you want. Okay, so you're allowed to move in any of those positions, but you're not allowed to come out of your ball, okay? So thank you. So I'm gonna stand here.

Am I still in? Yeah, okay. No. Okay, so you guys can take any anywhere in the mat you can. You don't have to be there.

I'm going to actually, maybe I'll do it from here. Anywhere you want. I'm gonna roll the ball and you cannot let the ball hit you. You have to roll to one side or the other side. And roll out of the way.

There we go. So I get two rolls. Two more rolls. I'm gonna, and you could come back up, Ava. I actually, I'm gonna aim for another victim maybe though.

It's fine, right? All right. That's okay. That's okay. And let's try one more.

I'm glad you're having fun. Maybe I'll try for, that wasn't a very good role, was it? I was aiming for the center. Okay, so Aiden why don't you be the bowler. Now notice when I bowled, I bowled with two hands.

I didn't throw the ball, I rolled it. So, and make sure we don't roll too, too quick. I'm gonna cheat. I'm gonna come back here. I can only roll one way though.

All right. So you get two more roles. Oh, that's close though. That was a good strategy though. That's a good strategy.

Oh, I can not roll that way. Oh, that's okay. That's okay, sometimes that happens. All right, it must've been the wind. So Ava, why didn't you go?

She's like, I'm gonna get him. That's a good hit. You gotta two more. Good. All right.

Sorry about that. One more chance. And maybe we go just a little further back. There we go. Good.

You got it. All right, so last but not least, Ashton. Good job though. Good role. Yes.

You got one word turn. She's strategizing. Oh, that's okay. Well, everyone did good. Everyone got somebody.

So you got me. All right, so we'll do one more thing. So you guys can all stand up. What we're gonna do is we're just going to reach for the stars with your hands. Try to grab this stars.

Good. And then come center and you're just gonna roll down and then you're gonna roll back up. We're gonna reach for the stars. Try to touch the stars. You could even go up on your toes if you like.

And now good roll down, roll back up and one more time reach for the stars and roll down and roll back up. And thank you guys, you did a great job. (applause) So I hope that was informative for you guys. So you can see some of the practices that I was talking about earlier in the workshop, put into practice. And did it help you guys at all?

Great. And I, didn't really just all, sorry. (woman speaking in the background) You can actually use it with adults, actually. A lot of things you can do. I always compare it to the apparatus.

Joseph Pilates created the apparatus to make the mat work easier. And you just have to think that way. Okay, you saw I did the shoulder roll down or some people call it the parakeet. I did that on the wall. I incorporated balls.

The wall was a type of prop, balls are a prop. Earlier, you see, you can use a scarf or a towel as a prop. So a lot of the things are very accessible. And even if you are traveling somewhere, it's very easy to bring something. You just need, maybe one ball, you could do pilates bowling.

I have a lot of different games and you just have to think outside of the box. And the nice thing about it is the work is endless. You can take it anywhere. And these are some of the ideas that I came up with, but other people are gonna come with up with other ideas. And it's just gonna add to the work.

And I encourage everyone to really take it, take the information and go with it, run with it, make it your own. And I really hope that I have given you some tools to work with and I hope that the kids inspired you and they did an amazing job. And I just wanna thank you guys for participating and I hope you enjoyed it, but I had a lot of fun. Thank you. (applause)