Jump for Joy, Jing Jang!

Don't you just love the toddler jumping with such intensity....they can't get both feet off the floor at once! It's a precious moment. Then you've forgotten that precious moment because they've grown and are bouncing off the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Jumping increases bone density...I'd heard about a school in Washington requiring the entire student body to do a certain amount of jumping every day! It also gives you deep pressure to you joints and spine....Please note that when jumping it's most effective if they jump all the way to the heels rather than the toes. The toe jumpers or toe walkers give the pressure to their foot rather than joints. Pressure for their joints gives them information about their body...like where their body begins and ends. It also uses up the stress hormones, so it can calm and focus children if they jump (with their hands on their head) all the way to their heels.

Just today I read about a different study on children jumping! Look!

“In a recent study, 4 to 6 year olds in a music and movement program showed more growth in motor skills than those in a standard physical education program. ... [Researchers] placed 50 children in an experimental music and movement program, and 42 in a traditional physical education program. After 8 weeks, the experimental group had improved significantly in both jumping and dynamic balance skills when compared to their peers in the traditional program.”Early Childhood Research Quarterly (Vol. 19, Issue #4, 2004).

Now, why would that be? We don't have as a Kindermusik class behavior objective to improve jumping skills? I would say a gymnastic class might actually have that objective. Hmmm. Back to the brain books I go to dig for an answer! But in the mean time....we sing: Jump for Joy, Jing Jang...and Jump 'Round the Mountain Todeediddleum....
Wait till next week when we jump like frogs!!!!(oh, my poor adult knees.)
Yvette
:-) Thanks Molly, I can't believe the timing!!