Choosing the right sports for your tiny tots
As parents, we often hear the mantra that children should have an all-round education in order to develop their academic, physical as well as social skills. In primary and secondary schools, the physical education syllabus is geared to expose students to more outdoor activities and get them active. For younger children, one great way to do this is to give them time for daily outdoor play. However, we also feel that it is a good option to introduce a child to a sport or two at a young age, in a structured yet playful setting. Two sports at the top of our list to enroll young children in are swimming and gymnastics.
Swimming
Swimming tops our list because it is an essential survival skill. When our four-year-old (nicknamed Barnacles) was younger, we thought it a waste of money to enroll him in swimming lessons before he turned one, as we thought we could build his water confidence ourselves in a big pool. However, although we brought him swimming often, he had never dared to go underwater and, not being trained ourselves, we were unsure how to teach him to do so.
When we had now 14-month-old Kwazii, we decided to enroll him for baby swimming lessons when he turned seven months – and he is now quite the water baby. When Barnacles saw his younger brother going underwater easily, he was keen to join a swimming class, too. The good thing about lessons at this age is that the classes are independent and more structured, with actual swimming strokes being taught but with an element of fun. After a few months of lessons, he has now mastered blowing bubbles underwater and is starting to learn how to kick his legs while blowing bubbles simultaneously. By the way, if you are considering signing your baby up for swim classes, Baby Spas don’t count.
The duo attend lessons at Aquabambinos Swim School at 45 Burghley Drive, which also offers trial classes for parents to see if their kids enjoy the class.
Gymnastics
When Barnacles turned three, he was not yet coordinated enough to jump with both legs off the ground. While we knew he would eventually figure it out, we felt that it was important to improve on his motor skills as this would help in all aspects of his physical development.
We strongly believe that gymnastics is the best sport to help children build every muscle group. It also develops strength, flexibility, balance and coordination. Learning the fundamentals of gymnastics will also help children to build a strong foundation and ability to take on any other sport they want in the future. With that in mind, we decided to sign Barnacles up for a kinder gymnastics trial class. We tried two trial classes at two different kids gyms, at which both times he refused to participate. We then signed him up for a trial class at Prime Gymnastics Club, and it was such a hit, he even requested to return the following week. For young children, it is very important to choose a coach who can connect well with children, and that is exactly what we found at Prime. Today, Barnacles even comes home asking to practise his forward and backward rolls – and he has finally learned to jump!
Football
Football is another sport we are keen to have the boys try out when they are slightly older. We feel it is important for children to be involved in a team sport, to learn good sportsmanship and how to win and lose well as part of a team. There is also no doubt that football is a physical sport, which will help to encourage fitness, technical and tactical abilities, agility and most important of all, discipline. As Daddy also played in the national amateur league and still plays football socially today, getting our two boys involved in the sport could be great for family bonding.
These days, parents are spoiled for choice with many football academies all over the island. We recommend ActiveSG’s Football Academy led by former Singapore international Aleksandar Duric and his team of coaches at several training centres across the island.
Aikido
Taekwondo and Aikido are two martial arts that are popularly offered to children. Not being trained in martial artists ourselves, we are unable to say for sure which sport is ‘better’, but we would opt for our boys to learn Aikido as we like its focus on self defence. According to the Aikido Federation of Singapore, “Aikido focuses not on punching or kicking opponents, but rather on using their own energy to gain control of them or to throw them away from you. It … places great emphasis on motion and the dynamics of movement.” We agree – having watched the movies of Aikido practitioner Steven Seagal, the moves certainly look like a lovely dance, and it is valuable to have knowledge of a martial art for self defence. You can check out aikiForest for more information.
As we were both very involved in sports throughout our school life and beyond, we feel that sport instills many values and life skills that cannot be learned elsewhere. However, as these sports classes for children certainly do not come cheap, we feel that whatever classes our boys attend, they should enjoy them and not be forced into joining. Getting the boys to take part in sports also tends to tire them out more, so they sleep better at night – which is always a good thing!
Mummy and Daddy Daycare are the pseudonyms of a Singaporean husband and wife who are raising two young boys aged four and one, nicknamed Barnacles and Kwazii from the children’s Octonauts series. Get into the minds of this couple who describe parenthood as a lifetime adventure – you are always learning something new! Whoever said parenting was a walk in the park?
All recommendations are the authors’ own.
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