5 Reasons To Sign Your Child Up For Ballet Class

Every parent faces the dilemma of how to choose the best after school activity for their child, and dance classes are often included somewhere on the list of possibilities. Signing you child up for ballet classes is one of the best choices you can make, for more reasons than you might imagine. There are other valuable skills to be gained aside from the physical benefits of exercise that will serve your child in many other activities for the rest of their lives.

1. Grace and coordination. Ballet lessons help a child to develop awareness of their body and how to control their movements. Ballet is a highly refined style of dance that requires dancers to be very precise in their movements. There are specific positions for the feet, head and arms, and over time, all students in the ballet class learn to put these separate movements and positions together to steer the body through a dance. Practicing the same movements over and over leads to perfection and precision, and grace is a by-product of those efforts. It is also exciting for children to witness the extent of their development as moves get easier and become second nature.

2. Spatial awareness. There are a lot of other students in class, and ballet classes often end with dance moves performed in the center of the room. It is a challenge to learn how to dance around through open space without crashing into other people. All ballet students learn to pay attention to their classmates, and make sure to maintain enough space between themselves and others so no one gets accidentally kicked or hit.

3. Good posture. It is easy to instantly identify a ballet dancer in a crowd because of the way they hold themselves. One of the first things your child learns in ballet classes is how to stand up straight. Ballet developed during the Middle Ages in the Italian and French courts; its movements reflected the dignified and noble carriage of court members. Today’s ballerinas still possess that same air of splendid magnificence, provided by excellent posture.

4. Improved listening skills. A ballet dancer has to pay attention and listen all the time. Every ballet class is full of verbal directions and demonstrations. Choreography must be learned and then remembered. Not only do ballet students learn to listen to the ballet instructor’s input, they also learn to listen to the music and dance the proper steps on the proper counts of the music.

5. Physical activity. Our bodies were made to move, and daily exercise is a vital part of health. In fact, current guidelines suggest 20-45 minutes of moderate exercise every day. Ballet classes are a fun and rewarding way to simultaneously learn new things and take care of your body.

Signing up for ballet lessons is sure to be rewarding in both the short and long term, for these reasons and more. Besides being fun, ballet provides a solid foundation for a wide variety of other activities, like sports, figure skating, gymnastics, and other forms of dance. Every minute spent in the ballet studio is an investment in your child’s future.

Why We Dance

For as long as we have been upright creatures, human beings have been dancing. Dance is a form of expression that supersedes verbal language; it is possible to convey far more meaning in a sweeping gesture than a simple phrase. But why do we dance? What compels us?
Celebration. Every culture across the globe celebrates for many different reasons. Social events, such as birth and marriage are two of the most common causes for festivity. There are also dances to praise the merits of each season. In Africa, for instance, there are dances of praise for fertility, of both crops and offspring. Other dances may be more specific to a particular area, or tribe, such as dances to celebrate a recent victory. One could argue that dance rituals of death fall in this category. While dancers grieve over the loss of a loved one, they simultaneously celebrate the life of that person.
Communion. Most humans believe in a Higher Power, and with this belief comes the desire to communicate and receive blessings from that entity. Sacred dances have been practiced for centuries, and are still quite common in places such as India, Asia, Indonesia, Africa and the Middle East. Dancing for communion is intricately linked with prayer, as well.
Connection. Humans are social creatures, and dance has long been a way for people to find connection and community. The array of group dances over time is staggering, from the simple maypole dance of spring, to waltzing, contra dancing, square dancing, and the ubiquitous conga line. Never has the old adage “no man is an island” ever been more correct than on the dance floor.
In the end, the simplest reason of all may be that it feels good to move our bodies to music. It is one of the most natural forms of expression, and a common language we all share. Young children are the most accurate barometers of how innate dance is for humans. If they hear a beat, they move their feet. Or hips, or anything else they can think of. Dance is not only our heritage, but also our birthright.

Beat Stress: Five Steps to Use Yoga to Relax and Beat Stress

In today’s world of multi-tasking mania, we have all become super-stressed superheroes. However, in five to ten minutes, a simple regenerative yoga technique can help anyone completely relax and re-energize. Follow these five steps anytime for the perfect tonic to counteract fatigue, stress, or a generally hectic day.

Step 1: Unplug. Turn off all ringers and any device that beeps, blips or vibrates. Instead, choose quiet music if that helps you relax, or just plain quiet works, too.

Step 2: Find a quiet space. It is important that you can rest without being disturbed. Inform family members or coworkers that you will be unavailable for the next ten minutes. Close the door to give yourself privacy.

Step 3: Assume the position. Find a three-foot wide section of blank wall space and lay a towel or yoga mat on the floor directly in front of it. Seat yourself, with your left side facing the wall, hip touching the wall, legs extended in front of you. Shift your weight back onto your elbows and simultaneously swing the legs straight up the wall. Press through the elbows and move your bottom up against the wall, then lay your upper body flat. At this point, your body will be in an “L” shape up against the wall. Let your arms rest gently on the floor, palms up.

Step 4: Slow it down. Close your eyes and breathe as slowly and deeply as you can. Listen to the sound of your breath as it flows in and out of the body, making it as smooth and even as you can.

Step 5: Let it all go. Set a timer if you need to, and then give yourself a mental vacation while you are resting. Set aside all thoughts, responsibilities and the dreaded to-do list. Place all the focus on breathing deeply, and imagining the breath is releasing any tense areas. Feel the body being held by the floor.

Following these five simple steps to perform this easy yoga pose, inverting with your legs up the wall, can yield powerful results. You will be amazed at how much better you feel when you give yourself the gift of truly relaxing.

Gotta Get Green – Growing Your Own Sprouts!

by Grier Cooper

We all know we’re supposed to eat green stuff. It’s good for us, full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, all the things that keep us healthy and disease-free. Adults know this already, but trying to get kids to cooperate and actually eat this kind of stuff is another story.

I once read a theory that the reason kids refuse to eat anything green is actually a latent Paleolithic-era survival instinct – if something is green in nature, that means it isn’t ripe and is unfit for consumption. Any kid under five will certainly agree with the “unfit for consumption” part, but that still leaves the problem unsolved. What if there was a reliably simple way to get them involved, on the same page, and enthusiastic? I’ve got one (magic) word for you: sprouts.

Growing sprouts, or “sprouting” isn’t just for hippies, although the hippy era may have made the technique more popular. In just minutes per day, with a minimal amount of effort, you’ve got a science experiment, gardening project, and a fool-proof method to get your kids emotionally invested in green stuff! The materials required are minimal – good quality seeds and a container to rinse them in that drains well. Kids don’t even need to get dirty to do this; they simply rinse the seeds twice daily and leave them to grow happily by the kitchen sink. The hardest part is remembering to get the seeds wet twice a day.

Before your kids get started, you’ll need to acquire the seeds to sprout, and it’s important to begin with the best seeds you can find, either at your local health food store, or online from a reliable retailer, such as Sprout People in San Francisco.

Many different types of seeds can sprouted, from alfalfa to sunflower, even some peas, beans, and peanuts or almonds (!) which add a great, crunchy texture to salads.

It’s best to start off with something mild that your kids will enjoy, such as red clover, alfalfa, adzuki beans, even raw peanuts. A container to rinse the seeds completes the list of materials. A colander, strainer, or sprouting tray are all good choices, so water can easily drain away as the seeds are rinsed.

Most seeds will need to be soaked overnight first (8-12 hours), so before bedtime, have the kids fill a bowl with water (cool temperature, 60-70 degrees), and add a few teaspoons of seeds.

The following morning, the seeds should be poured into whatever sprouting container you’ve chosen, and then rinsed again thoroughly, and left somewhere near the kitchen sink, but out of direct sunlight.

Continue to follow this procedure for several days, rinsing once in the morning and once in the evening, draining thoroughly.

It’s exciting to watch as the seeds crack open and the tiny plants begin to become luscious, green sprouts. For many types of seeds, this will happen within two to three days; others, such as alfalfa and alliums, may take longer, even up to six days or more.

Once the sprouts are green, they are ready for consumption. If you wish to remove the hulls from your sprouts, do so during the final rinse by breaking up the mass of sprouts, placing the sprouts in a bowl filled with water, and removing the hulls by hand as the sprouts float. Always end by giving the sprouts one final, good rinse, and allow them to dry fully (about twelve hours), before refrigerating them in a sealed plastic container.

You might be amazed at how enthusiastically your children will eat this green stuffthey have grown themselves. When our first crop of sprouts was ready, my (then two-year-old) daughter couldn’t get enough of them, and stuffed them into her mouth by the handful. This was nothing short of miraculous because she had been on a vegetable embargo for quite some time. As I watched her happily munching away, I knew we were onto something good. I have to admit the process was so easy and satisfying that I became a bit of a sprouting junkie myself. I went online and ordered stackable sprouting trays (so convenient), and the most exotic mixes of seeds I could find. As I write this, I still have yet to try one I don’t like. From what I can tell, in this era of the green revolution, it begins at home, right next to the kitchen sink.

To find Sprout People online, visit: http://www.sproutpeople.com/

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