OH Guide: How to trick-out the rhythmic gymnastics with your kids

Tomorrow, August 21, 2008 marks the beginning of the rhythmic gymnastics portion of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Some refer to it as the "joke sport" of the Olympics. However, rhythmic gymnastics is quite entertaining and beautiful to watch pairing tiny gymnasts with all sorts of funky equipment. It's also fun for your little ones to try. It requires full body movement which helps develop those gross motor skills. It's also a blast to do because it combines dance-like movement with a variety of apparatuses giving your little movers and shakers a chance to really express themselves and use their imaginations to create routines. The "apparatuses" are easy to gather and make and you probably have at least one around your house already. Oh, and there's music and that just rocks. Plus it's just really fun.

Watch and learn:

No doubt, unless you're totally sick of all the Olympic coverage, you and your kids have probably both been staying up way past your bedtimes to catch glimpses of the world's Olympic athletes jockeying for position and grasping for some of that sweet Olympic gold. Although many sports might seem slow moving and full of qualifying rounds that take way too long to set up, rhythmic gymnastics is a bit of an exception.

Rhythmic gymnastics is a great sport for little eyes to watch and easy to mimic. The sport offers lots of artistic, ballet-like movement...key words are mimic and movement.

The official Olympic Games site offers some background information on Olympic style rhythmic gymnastics that's helpful along with a schedule of events so you can make sure to watch the action live or at least know when to Tivo the event when the main portion airs at, oh, say, 1am.

Two great books for you and your kids to read on the sport of gymnastics are "The Best Book of Gymnastics by Christine Morley which is an illustrated book that details the history and how-to of gymnastics and American Girls "Girls Love Gymnastics" which breaks down the sport of gymnastics into it's various strands and includes crafts, true stories, how-to's and much more. Keep in mind the American Girl book is geared more towards girls but if your mini gymnast just so happens to be a boy and he can get past the "girls only" feel of this book it's a really great book.

Let's not forget YouTube for who to watch from rhythmic gymnastics during the 2008 Olympics, the inspirational and the...ahem..."motivational".

Gather Apparatuses:

Some apparatus used for rhythmic gymnastics aren't really going to be an option for your little one such as the rope or clubs. Other apparatuses used in this sport include hoops, balls and ribbon sticks.

You'll probably save the ropes and clubs for a real gymnastics's class and not some crazy at-home activity to fill your summer days. However, with the clubs I'm thinking clear empty plastic water bottles with the label peeled off and filled a quarter of the way with colored water and glitter. Should be relatively harmless for your junior jugglers just make sure to tightly seal the bottle with a little glue or duct tape.

Hoops and balls. Well, those two are simple and one if not both you probably own. A small, light outdoor ball will work just fine for the ball portion of your gymnastics showcase. Make sure the ball is light enough for your child to lift over her head. And, of course, a standard hula hoop will do the trick for the hoops. If you're looking to make a few small hoops check out
this tutorial from JasonUnbound. And if you're really wanting to trick-out the event rave style there's always this LED hula hoop that can be made.

In our household, the ribbon stick is our apparatus of choice. It's fun to manipulate, moves beautifully and adds some extra pizzazz to a tot gymnastics routine. Ribbon sticks can be made quite easily by tying a ribbon to a stick. But if you're looking to make a "serious" toy ribbon stick that is versatile and can be made on the cheap check out my Instructable titled "How to make a ribbon stick for your junior gymnast.

Now, if you're planning on going all out with the rhythmic gymnastics because your mini gymnasts are so totally into the rhythmic stuff this site really provides some good ideas in getting you started.

Turn up the tunes and bust some major moves:

What's rhythmic gymnastics without some inspirational music guaranteed to get your junior gymnast jumping, dancing and twirling? Our theme song of choice is "Super Rad" by the Aquabats because we really like to rock the ribbon stick. But I'm sure "We are the Champions" would do the job it your looking for some major drama.