Thursday, January 7, 2010

Gymnastics

When we were living in the city we benefited from some of the city programs, such as annual skating and public swimming passes and swimming lessons because they give these at a discounted price for low-income families. I did not realize that this discount also covered the other programs that the city offers.

Once I did find this out I decided to register the girls in gymnastics as I knew they would love this, especially Marietta who had be practicing her splits and cartwheels for months beforehand (I never mentioned that I was considering putting her in gymnastics). Of course the city programs are nothing fancy or advanced, but enough for the girls to learn something and have some fun. After our move this did mean a bit of extra driving, but it was usually combined with appointments and/or groceries to make the trip worthwhile.


By the end of the 9 weeks they had learned some new things. Marietta had her cartwheel figured out but Rebecca was still struggling to get her legs up there.

They had fun on the balance beam.And were quite impressed with how high they were actually jumping when the did their dismount.


We will miss these extra luxury benefits that we enjoyed, but we will especially miss the cheap (75% off) swimming lessons we could get while living in the city. Since qualification goes by tax years we still have a few months to benefit from these programs and so the kids are currently taking swimming lessons (the same night as piano lessons - to make the trip in worthwhile).

2 comments:

Joyce said...

You need to come here for swimming lessons. I think the govt has this initiative to stop kids drowning so lessons are a dollar a piece. My sis has 3 kids signed up and its 27 bucks for her. But then there is the pool entrance on top but the beach would be free!!

Steph said...

I think the cost of getting to Australia might offset the saving for swimming lessons :)

We pay $13 for 9 lessons, so that's about $1.44 per lesson and there's no pool entrance fee. So it's pretty close to what you pay (or cheaper depending on the entrance fee you have to pay).

There has been talk here about making swimming lessons a mandatory part of elementary school in order to make sure that all kids learn to swim ... but I can't see that happening anytime in the near (or distant) future.