Category: News

Now, I don’t think I’ve mentioned it but Leapfrog Sports recently won an award.. best for getting active (we also came runners up in the Best for Toddlers too!)

I am very proud of this award because we really believe in the importance of getting children active, for both their physical and mental well-being. But do you know how much activity is recommended daily? Well read on to find out…

Physical activity is associated with numerous health benefits for children, such as muscle and bone strength, health and fitness, improved quality of sleep and maintenance of a healthy weight.

What are the guidelines?

Children under 5 who can walk on their own should be physically active every day for at least 180 minutes (three hours). This should be spread throughout the day, indoors or outside and is a mixture of light and energetic activity.

For children aged 5 to 18 years old to maintain a basic level of health, they need:

At least 60 minutes of physical activity every day – this should range from moderate activity, such as playground activities, to vigorous activity, such as running and tennis. On three days a week, these activities should involve exercises for strong muscles and bones, such as jumping and running.

These chief medical officers’ guidelines are thought to be so important that they are specifically referenced in the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework – which sets standards for the learning, development and care of children from birth to 5 years old, which all schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers must follow, including childminders, preschools, nurseries and school reception classes.

So what counts as the activity that is recommended in the guidelines?

I have mentioned a few above but light activity is things such as standing up, moving around and walking and the energetic activity that is needed are things that make kids ‘huff and puff’ such as:

• active play (like the games played at Leapfrog)
• running around
• jumping on a trampoline
• riding a bike
• dancing
• swimming
• skipping rope
• playing sport

This amount of time may be a challenge for busy parents, but there is evidence to show that early life experiences and habits impact upon our health as adults and of course, Leapfrog Sports sessions can make your life a little easier and help you achieve this.

Did you know that being active doesn’t just have physical benefits? Next time I’ll talk about how it can also help with children’s mental health…

Jo

I LOVE our classes, I really do. In fact the whole way they are designed is because I am a parent with active children and I couldn’t find any other sessions like these and I was sure that other children and parents would love our classes too.

Last week I released our brand new video and some pictures I had had taken at our special event (you can see this on my previous blog and Facebook page if you missed it!).

While we were there I asked some of our parents what they thought of the Leapfrog sessions and why they brought their children along. I was overwhelmed at how many parents offered to record testimonials for us and the amazing things they said and so here is the first of our testimonial videos – Leapfrog Sports Facebook Page

I can honestly say, hand on heart, that this is all their own thoughts and I didn’t prompt them at all! It is fantastic to see that I was right and our classes truly are loved by our parents and children!

I’d love to hear your thoughts of the sessions too!!

Have a great week

Jo

A few weeks ago we had a very special Leapfrog Sports party afternoon, where we invited some of our Leapfroggers and their parents along and had an afternoon of fun, getting active playing games and sports with loads of the equipment.

Sounds great, but why am I telling you this?? Because while we were there we took the opportunity to record a video and took some fantastic pictures of all the children and the team, having a fabulous time!

Here is a sneak preview of one of the pictures of the team:

Head over to our Facebook page now to check out our video and my favourite photos – it was so hard choosing, there will be more to come.
Leapfrog Sports Facebook Page

I also just wanted to share this with you the first picture is from when she first began and the second is now – she is still loving Leapfrog after all these years!!

While we were recording, several of our Leapfrog parents also told us what they thought about the sessions – so look out for this video next week!!

I’d love to hear your comments!

Have a great week

Jo

PS. The photos were taken by Kobi and you can find him on instagram @kobizphotography or email: info@kobizphotography.com

I have 2 boys (6 & 4 years old) who are on holiday from school and as I mentioned before they are FULL of energy. In fact, my eldest son Lucas was the whole reason that I started Leapfrog Sports as I wanted a way that wasn’t just football for him to burn off his energy!

Now it is Easter and they are both off school and I am trying to do some work (not happening!) and keep them entertained too – not an easy thing to do at all, especially when the weather isn’t great!! So this week, keeping to the topic of being active, I thought I could tell you about a couple of the activities we have done to get them moving, burn off some energy and for my sake tire them out so I can sit down and have a cuppa!!

Golf – it is possibly with the exception of swimming or ice skating, the only sport we don’t cover but it is great fun. Swinging the clubs around, working on hand-eye coordination and concentration. There is also an element of maths with adding your score you do need some patience for waiting for your turn. I can’t guarantee there won’t be any tantrums but if you keep it fairly light hearted and not worry too much about the rules we all had a great time. Alternatively, we have also gone down to a driving range where the kids were able to practice hitting the balls. You would be surprised how long it keeps them entertained and this certainly tired them out.

Walking – Things to love about a walk is that it is free and easy – just step outside of your house, but not the most exciting activity. We have a dog (here she is!) so are always walking and a long walk is a great way for the family to get active with no cost involved and at any time. To make it more interesting we designate a leader and we take turns as to who decides which way to go, eg they might choose to go left or straight on down the road. We have also done scavenger hunts, where we look out for interesting objects on the way, you could even make a list of things to look for before you go eg leaves or bugs. You could even turn a walk into an obstacle course, eg balance on the cracks in the pavement, run to the lamppost. There is no excuse if it is raining either as just get your wellies on and see how many puddles you can jump in.

Trampolining – This has become really popular recently and although it really isn’t cheap, we went for a trampolining session and I joined in too and it was great fun! My top tip if you have younger children is to go first thing in the morning, the older children don’t seem to go until later and although it would be tempting to sit and have a coffee while the kids play, get jumping too!! Also great for rainy days.

Leapfrog Sports Session! Our Saturday classes run throughout the holidays, so come and burn some energy playing sport.

I still have 5 days of the holidays left to go – wish me luck – and if I’m not too exhausted I’ll be back with another blog next week!

PS– thank you to all of you that have voted, it really means a lot – just a couple of days left to go!

PPS – please let me know about anything you do to get your kids active in the holidays

So firstly, my apologies! I know that last week I said that in this blog I would share some ways that you can get your children active and also the importance of children being active but we have had some fantastic news that I wanted to share…

We have been nominated and are finalists in the Hoop 2018 Awards in 2 categories!

The Hoop Awards celebrate and recognise the activity organisers and people that go above and beyond to entertain, educate and inspire children across Britain and that families are interacting with most on their app (If you haven’t got the app already, it is a great way to find out and see what is going on in your local area).

As you can imagine I am over the moon that Leapfrog Sports is therefore a finalist in these awards in the following categories:

Best for Toddlers – Birmingham

Best for getting Active – Birmingham

Here is now where I need your help, although fantastic to be a finalist, how amazing would it to win?!?

Please could you take 2 minutes to vote for us? It is quick and easy, just click on this link, find our categories and click on our name >>  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfuklmITaCRIYJ6g35xdsnMLLflwNbwVIK_iYvjT5LBKTb1rA/viewform

And the even better thing… by voting you could win yourself a £100 John Lewis voucher from Hoop! Voting Closes on 12th April.

So what are you waiting for? Please vote for us by clicking here >> https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfuklmITaCRIYJ6g35xdsnMLLflwNbwVIK_iYvjT5LBKTb1rA/viewform

And although I didn’t speak this week about ways to get your children active (and I promise, look out for this next week!) but what better way could there be than coming along to one of  our sessions, we are the finalists in the Best for getting Active category in the Hoop awards after all, and who knows, with your help maybe the winners!?!

Jo

I’m sure you have come across these adverts from Cancer Research while you have been out and about, and everyday I seem to hear more and more stats about how the population is getting bigger and that soon being obese will be the new norm. It is clearly a problem and a growing problem caused by an energy imbalance: taking in more energy through food than we use through activity.
We all know: eat too much + move too little = too much weight and being overweight is bad for you.

But what has jumped out at me recently is that, according to government research, today nearly a third of children aged 2 to 15 are overweight or obese and younger generations are becoming obese at earlier ages and staying obese for longer. A third!

What shocks me even more, is when you break this down to the very youngest children, 9% of four and five-year-olds are now classed as obese and in Solihull itself, where we are based and run some of our sessions, 20% of children in reception at school are overweight or obese.

How can this be? I have 2 young boys and they never sit down – not even for 5 minutes!! Children love to run around and be active, I’m exhausted after a day with them but the facts don’t lie.

The really worrying thing is that once a habit is formed in such a young age it will be hard to break and there is overwhelming evidence that a child’s experiences during their early years lays down a foundation for the rest of their life. So by children starting off in life overweight, they will be more likely to stay overweight, especially if so many people around them are the same.

So what can be done? Better diet and move more. Of course it’s not always easy and I’m not an expert in nutrition but I do know plenty of ways to get kids moving more, right from the very youngest, which I’ll share next week and the best thing about obesity in children – it can be changed.

After a weekend with my children, I think I need a lie down!

Jo

Back in 2014, I launched my multi-sports classes to help children, to enjoy a variety of sports without the financial and logistical difficulties associated with multiple classes.

Leapfrog Sports was born, and in the last three years, it’s gone from strength to strength – and now hundreds of children came along to the classes run by our qualified coaches.

However…

I have 2 boys aged 6 and 3 and many, many parents with siblings contact me to come along to the sessions but – here is the problem – our sessions tend to be age specific to coach at the right level for the children. This leaves parents to decide:

1) Do we come along to two different sessions aimed at the right age for our children? or

2) Do they come along to the same session but the younger child has to fit in with the older age session?

This didn’t seem fair or right to me so there is now option 3.

At Alderbrook School on Saturday mornings at 11am and at Wythall Park on Sunday mornings at 10.15am, we will be running our ‘Sibling Sessions’ where you can bring all your children along at the same time and place but they will be given age appropriate coaching while gaining all the benefits that coming to the Leapfrog Sports sessions brings.

To see how this works for you, we are inviting you to come along for a FREE trial to these sessions. To book, all you need to do is click here: FREE SESSION and complete the free trial form to book your place (put in the comments box the name and age of any siblings)
Of course if you do have any other questions, then just click here to send us a message or give us a call > Contact Us

To make this even better for parents of siblings we offer a 20% discount off the second or more, child’s class fees.

I believe this is the only session around like this, and with limited spaces I’m sure these will be snapped up quickly so click here to register to try a session for FREE >> FREE SESSION

Hi Everyone,

As promised this week it is the turn of Lydia, who is one of our Assistant Coaches at Alderbrook school on Saturday morning. She has now been working with us for about 6 weeks and I thought it was time to get to know Lydia better with the help of our insightful questions!
(I can tell I’m getting old – I had to google her Karaoke song as I’d never heard of it!!)

1) What is your favourite sport?

Dance.

2) What makes you laugh the most?

My friends and family.

3) What is your favourite and your worst food?

My favourite food is chocolate and my worst food is mushrooms.

4) What song would you sing at karaoke?

Ariana Grande – Honeymoon Avenue.

5) If you were a superhero, what powers would you have?

The ability to change how someone is feeling.

6) What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like to choreograph dances and practice special FX makeup.

7) What 3 people, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?

Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Ariana Grande because they are all my biggest inspirations and huge icons around different times.

8) Tell us a bit about yourself…

I make YouTube videos focussed around makeup and fashion, I am also a dance teacher as well as a dancer. I also am studying 3 creative A levels (dance, art and media) and am hoping to study specialist makeup and hair at university next year!

9) Why did you want to work for Leapfrog Sports and what do you enjoy the most about working for Leapfrog Sports?

I wanted to work for Leapfrog because I love teaching the younger children at my dance classes and have volunteered many time in nurseries and schools. My favourite thing about Leapfrog is how fun it is and that it doesn’t feel like work to me because I really enjoy it.

Coming soon it is the turn of our most recent member of the team Imogen to be questioned (interrogated?!)

Jo

Hi everyone,

As you may have seen the Leapfrog family is expanding and we have some new faces in our Saturday morning classes, but don’t worry the old faces are still there too (Sorry- Amanda, Kelly and Ankita!!) So I though it was time we got to know them better with our usual probing questions!!

So this week it is the turn of Alice, our new coach – here are her answers:

1) What is your favourite sport?

Football.

2) What makes you laugh the most?

A good comedy film.

3) What is your favourite and your worst food?

My favourite Indian and my worst food is sea food.

4) What song would you sing at karaoke?

Oasis – wonderwall.

5) If you were a superhero, what powers would you have?

Invisibility.

6) What do you like to do in your spare time?

Watch and play as much sport as I can mostly going to watch Birmingham City.

7) What 3 people, living or dead, would you invite to dinner?

Peter Kay as makes me laugh, Bradley Wiggins as I believe he is an amazing sports man. Alan Sugar to ask what the main qualities to being so successful are.

8) Tell us a bit about yourself…

I am an identical twin play football three times a week within the women’s Premier division. Have a Sports degree worked within education for four years where I have been given opportunities such as leading my own physical education group worked at summer camps as a multi sports coach as well as attending national governing body coaching badges to broaden my knowledge.

9) Why did you want to work for Leapfrog Sports and what do you enjoy the most about working for Leapfrog Sports?

I wanted to work for Leapfrog as I believe learning the fundamental movements of sport from a young age is very important as well as having the opportunity to be introduced to new sports so children can decide for themselves what sports they like and hopefully take part in them in the future. What I enjoy about leapfrog the most is the atmosphere with the parents as well as the children being involved lovely to see the children having a huge smile of their face whilst being with their family.

Thank you Alice – It’s great to have you on the team!

Next week, it is the turn of our new Assistant coach Lydia… so look out for that!!

Jo