Gymnastics grading day.

Today the 21st was Caitlin and Joshua's in-house gymnastics competition and grading at Sandgate PCYC. They had spent the past month and a half learning the routines that they were to do today at gymnastics and today was their chances to show off what they had learned.

It was a hot steamy middle of the day, but Terry Asha and I all went, cause Terry and i both didn't want to miss it. The kids were divided into groups according to their level and were taken through each apparatus in turn (un-even bars, beam, floor and vault). At the end they were given a score sheet which the judges had marked their maneouveres with a Needs Developing, Developed or Well Developed.

Terry and I were so proud of both of them. Joshua had done a year of kindergym prior to Prep-Gym this year, but we all knew he was such a monkey regularly scaring the heck out of us. Well today he got a majority of Well-Developeds and an invitation to join the Male Artistic Gymnastics Level 1 squad for next year.

Caitlin isn't a physical child but she thought that what Joshua did looked like fun, so she went a long this year too. Caitlin has a fear of heights/falling. So she faced a fairly large challenge in doing gymnastics. At the start of the year, the beam and bars reduced her to tears. Literally, she would cry when she got up on them. So to see her go through the whole carnival with no tears, and only a few qualms on the beam is such a huge improvement for her, I could just cry. While she didn't get the glowing results that Joshua did, I'm every bit as proud of her for the work that she has put in on conquering her fears and getting a handle on things that don't come naturally to her at all.