Support Small Businesses Series - Best Gymnastics

Madison started taking gymnastics classes at Best Gymnastics when it first opened in Flower Mound, TX over two years ago. Best Gymnastics is an exceptional business because of the values the business was built upon and the amazing staff that carry out the vision of Best Gymnastics every day.

In Madison's first class, I noticed that she was being taught gymnastics like I had never seen it taught before. She was 3, and she was taught how do skills from beginning to finish. The coaches weren't just 'going through the motions' they actually cared that she learned how to do things the right way! She was really learning gymnastics while having fun. And she LOVED it! As she has progressed throughout the years, the quality of instruction has been extraordinary regardless of her level or coach. I have never experienced that with any other activity she has been involved in.

What do I love most about Best Gymnastics? There are many things, but the main reason is the feeling of being treated like family. The coaches are all very close and would do anything to help each other out. This extends on to their classes...they care about the kids as if they are their family too. All of the coaches want the very best for the kids in their classes and teach them correct gymnastics, exhibit an amazing amount of patience, are very encouraging, and work with them every week to help them master different skills. They go out of their way to give their all to every class they teach, every day. They are not there for 'just a paycheck', but because they love what they do and they want to make a difference in every child's life. That is why Madison takes classes three days a week and has gained such a sense of accomplishment and a high self-esteem. I am impressed with their emphasis on safety because they are very well organized and follow safety rules and have an age appropriate learning progression so my child is safe while learning gymnastics. I know that Best Gymnastics has the cleanest gym in Texas. That also shows how much they care. Best Gymnastics is also very fair to me as a customer and they don't charge 'member' fees for events or annually, or try to lock me into a contract. They don't have to. Best Gymnastics is a business with integrity.

If you love Best Gymnastics, please vote for them to be nominated for the Best of Denton County 2013 award HERE. Just choose Sports & Fitness, Gymnastics and fill in Best Gymnastics as the Nominee. You don't have to register and it only takes a moment.

If you would like to try Best Gymnastics, they offer a free trial class. They also have AWESOME  activities for kids and if you are interested in signing up for one of their camps, FamilyeGuide has a coupon HERE!

You can also check them out on Facebook!

Support Small Businesses Series - AquaKids

AquaKids is the BEST and ONLY swimming school in the area to take swimming lessons! We have only gone to their Flower Mound location, but they also have another location in Keller. My daughter, Madison, can't wait to go to each lesson and doesn't want to leave when her lesson is over. Also the pool is warm, so she doesn't have to take time to 'get used to it'. She just jumps right in!

I love AquaKids because I can trust all of their instructors. AquaKids has a great employee selection process which is very important to to me.

Madison has learned SO much more with the AquaSteps program.at AquaKids than she has with any other swimming instruction. The amount of skills and how quickly she learns while having fun is just amazing! I can say without any hesitation that the amount of skills Madison has learned is worth far more than the amount tuition we have paid for them! I am so glad we decided to give AquaKids a try last year!

The instructors at AquaKids are awesome and have instilled the love of swimming in Madison. Ms. Mackenzie was so encouraging and fun while she challenged Madison during lessons, now Madison wants to work her way up to be on their swim team!

If you love AquaKids, please vote for them to be nominated for the Best of Denton County 2013 award HERE. Just choose Sports & Fitness, Swimming Instruction (at the end of the drop down list) and fill in AquaKids as the Nominee. You don't have to register and it only takes a moment.

If you've never tried AquaKids, coupons can be found for them on FamilyeGuide and Flower Mound Family!

They also have an awesome special going on right now:

Check out the list of my favorite small businesses in the area HERE.

Next up is Best Gymnastics!

Why Small Businesses Are the Best!

Small business owners have a special place in my heart. In my opinion, not only do they give better service, they are the heart of what the American Dream stands for. My grandpa owned his own business for his entire life and was happy and successful. He left a legacy that will be handed down from generation to generation. Work hard-play hard. I truly believe in supporting small business owners that work so hard, day in and day out so that they can provide us with a quality like no other. Franchises loose the 'heart and soul' of quality and the 'hometown' feel.

Here are the small local DFW business in alphabetical order that I am going to write posts on that I believe are exceptional. If you have the opportunity to nominate any of these for the Best of Denton County Award 2013, thank you in advance! You don't have to register and it only takes a moment. Right now with the economy, it is more important than ever to support them! If they are nominated and win they are given free advertising and a prestigious title. This means a great deal to each of them. This is an easy way to give back to your community and make a difference! I am not affiliated with any of these businesses or paid for these posts. All opinions are my own. If you are not familiar with any of the businesses below, please take a moment and check them out.

Art House

AquaKids

Best Gymnastics

Cross Timbers Animal Medical Center

Enzo's NY Pizzeria

FamilyeGuide

Studio B Theater

Totally Forgot

How I forgot my daughter's 6th birthday in my last post is beyond me. I'm going to blame it on all the craziness lately. LOL. Madison had begged for a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party for years.Fortunately  she fell in love with Best Gymnastics, so we were able to have her party there for the past two years.I wasn't so lucky this year. I loathe Chuck E. Cheese. But to my surprise, it was actually a really fun birthday party.We were very lucky to be the only party at that time.That is the key. I'm an only child so I don't share very  well, so this was perfect! she had a blast and the party host was AMAZING. She went WAY out of her way to make sure it was a very memorable event for Madison!

Madison had a great birthday celebration at school.

 She had a fun time with her grandparents eating at Texas Roadhouse (tradition to sit on the saddle)

And this year she asked her friends to bring donations for the Flower Mound Humane Society in lieu of gifts. Here she is donating them.

Faithful Blogging

So today begins the day of faithful blogging. I did really well on a previous blog I had, and then I started working. I loved my job so much, but there wasn't time to do all of the things I really wanted to do too. Two years later I left my job to focus on my family and to spend more time volunteering. I miss writing blogs for them, but I am very happy to have the time now to write my own. :) I have so much to write about, like our Disney trip and summer learning and fun, but first....the last two weeks of school....

School is officially out and I am now a proud mother of a First Grader and a College Freshman. In the past couple of  weeks, I survived the last week of school, kindergarten graduation, my parents visiting and a high school graduation.I am going to do short blog posts on each of these, since someone once told me that no one likes to read long things. ;)

Madison. She has had the BEST year of kindergarten ever! Madison and her class were blessed with the best teacher in the world. She had tons of fun participating in Mad Science after school, dance class, gymnastics, tumbling, and art class.

The year came to an end with Field Day, Splash Day and Kindergarten Graduation.

Super Hero Field Day photo credit: Jennifer Bassier

Super Hero Field Day photo credit: Ms. Walker

 

Splash Day photo credit: Carrie Parker

Kindergarten Graduation photo credit: Carrie Parker

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie...

It's ironic how this is the book we focused on this past week and somehow it seemed to be the theme of the week...wanting one thing after another! LOL.

I hope everyone had a great Forth of  July! We decided to take it easy and went to Vista Ridge Mall during the day for our festivities. It was an air conditioned event which is key in the middle of the summer in Texas. They had crafts and facepainting so Madison really enjoyed it! Later that evening we watched fireworks. It ended up being a late night, but that's ok once and awhile.

Madison enjoyed making her take home craft from the Lewisville Library

This week we enjoyed reading "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff. We have it as part of the Mouse Cookies and More Treasury.

It has activities and songs and a CD that is the audio version of each book and the songs too. Madison listened to them over and over. Then we did some activities. She drew a picture like the mouse did in the book, she made playdough cookies and molded a mouse out of molding clay.

Then we did some great If You Give a Mouse a Cookie activities I downloaded for free from ingles360 that have activities for preschoolers as well as grade school! For more activities to make books and reading fun visit my Book Lists and Activities Pinterest Board.

If you have a post that you would like to share with activity ideas to go with books please leave a comment below with your link!

A great summer of fun so far!

I am determined to make the most out of the summer before Kindergarten and we are doing just that! Our summer has been filled with different lessons, crafts, treats and fun! I promised myself I would blog about our summer NO MATTER WHAT! :) So here I go.

Madison was extremely excited to turn 5 so she could get her very own library card! I am so delighted with everything the Lewisville Library has to offer for kids over the summer. They have a phenomenal children's summer reading program! Madison is able to read over the entire summer and earn really cool prizes! They also have GREAT children's reading times and programs. Here are some pictures of Madison with her library card and a picture of Zooniversity who presented endangered animals at the library program today. We are so lucky to have a library close that offers so much!

 

Madison completed the first level of her summer reading program through the library and one of the prizes was a free kids meal at Chili's. 

 And the best part of eating out is ordering desert!

 In the morning while I'm still waking up, Madison has free time. She built her Lincoln Logs all by herself by following the instructions! I was so impressed and she was so very proud!

 Here are other pictures of her morning free time activities.

Playdough Fun!

Building a castle

Painting on aluminum foil

Painting

Sand Art

Mosaic Art

Coloring

 

Madison just finished up a two week swimming
camp at Aqua Kids. She passed to the next level and will be starting once a week lessons next week. I am so very, very proud of her. Here are the details for the class/camp she just did:
Requirements to enter the class: 10 second breath control, jump turn and swim to wall, swim 25 feet, get independent forward breath with good recovery, back float, back glide
Goals for the class: Proper body position with forward swim, swim 1 length of our pool with rollover breathing, finning on back 1 width of our pool, introduction to frog kick, underwater swim

And here are the details for the next class she begins on Monday:
Requirements to enter the class: Proper body position with forward swim, swim 1 length of our pool with rollover breathing, finning on back 1 width of our pool, introduction to frog kick, underwater swim
Goals for the class: Freestyle 1 length of our pool with rollover breath, finning on back 1 length of our pool, frog kick 1 width of our pool, underwater swim, diving
Yep, I am one VERY proud momma!

We have been participating in every Passport to Imagination craft at Michaels. Each craft represents a different country and she gets to make a pin as well. A super cool fun activity. We go every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.  (She dressed herself that day)

Madison is continuing to take gymnastics at Best Gymnastics and is loving it.  She is on the Developmental Team and loves Coach Josh. She is excited about becoming a team girl one day and is even more excited to practice hard after watching the Olympic Trials.

Yogi Kids and Sacred Dance opened a new studio together in Flower Mound and are offering $5 classes all summer long. Madison has been taking Kids Yoga, Hip Hop, Storytime Yoga, and Ballet and Tap. I don't currently have pictures, but will be posting some soon!

Downtime is also very important. I have finally discovered how to implement it for both Madison and I for an hour every day....books on CD. I checked out a bunch of Magic Tree House books on CD and downloaded them onto her iPod (temporarily we delete them after she listens to them). She LOVES them and lays down and listens for an hour or more.  It's GREAT!

We also have started a reading list of books that I read to her and she is on Set 2 of BOB books that she reads to me. Next week I am going to start Story Stretchers to go with the books we are reading.  Lots of different activities. I also hope to involve her in cooking and start some music. Trying to find a balance without putting anything off for her can be very difficult sometimes. I am very, very lucky to have a great helper (Madison's sister). She has been wonderful this summer.

I can't believe it is already almost July! It is crazy how fast time is flying by, I need a pause button! I am very fortunate to have a 'cheat sheet' website with all the activities for kids in North Texas right at my fingertips. Thank goodness for FamilyeGuide or I'd miss out on all the fun things to do this summer!

So far it's been a busy and productive summer and his doesn't even include all of the organizing of Madison's room! I'll save that for the next post!

Spring is in the air! Time for lots of fun!

It is warming up outside and I am getting so excited for Spring! We're gearing up for our St. Patrick's Day activities and Spring activities as well! 

Here are some links to great St. Patrick's Day activities that we are currently working on!

St. Patrick's Day from Home made Preschool

St. Patrick's Day from PreKinders

St. Patrick's Day from 2 Teaching Mommies 

Check out my Spring Pinterest Board for lots of fun activities and ideas!

Here are a couple pictures of Madison completing a project from The Printable Share.  Just click on St. Patrick's Day on the site for many more fun activities. 

Madison has also been keeping very active!  She is taking gymnastics once a week and dance class once a week.  I just signed her up for a sports skills class that she will be starting tomorrow too.  We took her bowling for the first time this past weekend and she LOVED it!  She also likes to do yoga on the Wii for fun!

Here is a picture of Madison during her class at Best Gymnastics

Here is a picture of Madison bowling

And a picture of her attempting to do the yoga on the Wii

I always love finding great ideas for kids!  Here are some great articles worth reading from Family eGuide:

Imaginative Fun

Girly Fun

Family Activities Any Time

I look forward to working on our Gardening Unit from Homeschool Creations and planting seeds for her to watch grow! I am also looking forward to having a lot of fun doing activities with Madison that I find on the Family eGuide Calendar and having her get her energy out at Best Gymnastics Spring Break Camp!

Kindergarten registration is next month...it is all happening too fast!  Getting one child ready for kindergarten and the other for her senior year and choosing a college has been an eye opener of just how fast life goes and I'm enjoying every minute of it!