This year Tumble Tots celebrates its 40th anniversary since first opening the doors in 1979, proving that this children’s pre-school activity continues to stand the test of time and that physical play will always be an essential part of a child’s ongoing development.
Not familiar with Tumble Tots, where have you been? The Tumble Tots programme consists of five age-related classes tailored to suit the various stages of a child’s development, with activities and apparatus to reflect this. The wooden and foam equipment used in the classes has been specially designed to not only be bright, colourful and fun, but to challenge and develop children’s physical abilities.
Tumble Tots was first created by former British Olympic gymnastics coach, Bill Cosgrave, who identified that children coming to his gymnastics lessons were not equipped with the necessary fundamental movement skills to take part, such as agility, balance and co-ordination. Bill therefore developed special classes to teach children these basic but important skills, prior to moving on to do gymnastics. This then evolved into the progressive physical play programme that we know and love today, teaching far more than just agility and climbing, but also ‘Skills for Life’.
It has been proven that physical activity enhances children’s brain development which will inevitably help them go further in life, making Tumble Tots the playful start to future success. Coming to Tumble Tots also gives children the chance to develop their social skills by interacting with other children and adults. Attending weekly not only contributes children’s recommended activity levels, but also introduces them to structure which in turn prepares them for school. The action songs and body identification rhymes enhance children’s listening, language and memory skills. In addition, hand held items are also used in classes to aid with hand, eye and foot co-ordination.
There are so many benefits of coming to Tumble Tots and every child takes away something different from their experience, however, one of the biggest according to our parents, is how much they see their children grow in confidence. Read our testimonials to see for yourself.
Over the last 40 years, franchisees across the country, have delivered Tumble Tots classes to around 2 million children. Currently around 35,000 children benefit from attending each year and as time goes by, more and more ex-Tumble Tots are bringing their own children to classes, a result of experiencing the benefits for themselves first hand.
Tumble Tots has seen many changes over the years but has always had children’s health, happiness and wellbeing at the heart of its aims and objectives.