Continuing GymbaROO-KindyROO’s pursuit of helping today’s babies and children get off to the best start possible for learning and life, we have created an online series of online baby development classes called Active Babies Smart Kids. This series contains crucially important information about the development of babies from birth to crawling, and has hundreds of ideas and activities that help mums, dads and carers raise smarter, happier babies.
At GymbaROO and KindyROO we know that parents are a child’s first, most important and best teachers. Parents play such a crucial role in the early years. Well informed parents make more confident parents. Helping parents and carers to understand the importance of early childhood development is the key to assisting babies to develop into successful learners and competent adults.
It had become obvious that with the explosion of technological advances the world had seen of late, that the ability to reach millions of parents with important information and great fun ideas to enhance early childhood development would now be possible and needed to be done.
The series has been adapted by Dr Jane Williams and Bindy Cummings from GymbaROO’s highly acclaimed neuro-developmental programs. It is the brain-child of Bindy, niece of the Founder of GymbaROO, Margaret Sassé, and daughter of Dr Mary-Lou Sheil, the co-developer of the GymbaROO DVD series: The Ladder of Learning. With a teaching degree in Physical Education (Hons), a past GymbaROO NSW Manager, long-term GymbaROO franchisee, teacher trainer and consultant, and years of experience in the media industry, Bindy brought a wealth of knowledge and a fabulous front-of-camera vibrancy to this series. Dr Jane Williams, Research and Education General Manager for GymbaROO and KindyROO, provided important neuro-developmental knowledge and input, as well as continuing involvement and support.
Ideas were formulated and scripts were developed, written and rewritten.
It was a steep learning curve for all involved, including the terrific production team from The Media Mix in Melbourne Australia. This sort of series, on this scale, had not been attempted before so we had no example to follow.
We put out a call to our Melbourne GymbaROO’s for cast members and were thrilled and very grateful to the parents and babies that came to be a part of this piece of GymbaROO history. All in all over 40 babies and their parents were involved. They formed the most delightful cast ever assembled! (Well, we think so!)
Our wonderful and knowledgeable specialists were only too happy to contribute both their time and expertise to our baby development classes, and their addition to the program is so very valuable.
Thanks to our cast and crew, (including our GymbaROO volunteers and our fantastic director, Danielle McAlpine), and a combination of know how and understanding from both a developmental and a production side, we ended up with our 12 episodes.
Thanks also to our partner The Woolmark Company for its ongoing support throughout this production. The global authority on wool worked with four brands to supply beautifully soft Merino wool baby clothes and rugs which feature throughout this series, teaching all about the wonderful natural benefits of wool; such a natural fit for our babies.
We are simply delighted with the results and hope that you are too!
We have created this first series of baby development classes for parents and carers of babies (newborn to crawling) and it includes 12 x 22min episodes.
Our ABSK series of baby development classes is full of important information, exciting insights and lots of fun activities and ideas to help your baby’s brain and body development. It is designed to help parents help their babies when they cannot attend a GymbaROO-KindyROO centre. It also helps remind those who already attend a centre of some of the activities done there. Of course, a TV series cannot possibly replace the wonderful socialisation opportunities and movement activities you and your baby get when attending a centre… however, if you have no access to the wonderful GymbaROO and KindyROO program, this is a great place to start! Everyone can now join in and do BabyROO in the comfort of your own home.
This series covers the how and why of important developmental areas, from tummy time to baby’s balance along with visual development, baby massage, exercises and much more. The episodes also include chats with early childhood specialists . The Let’s do BabyROO section of each episode encourages parents to join in with their baby to do baby exercises and dances to music, baby massage, activities to help with visual development, hearing and speech, baby balance, the inhibition of primitive reflexes and so much more. Just like our GymbaROO classes for babies, our Active Babies Smart Kids Online series is all based on fun and learning together with joy and happiness.
This series of baby development classes will show you how to help your baby maximise their potential, and help to make sure they get the best opportunity to learn as much as there is to learn from each developmental stage they are going through. This will help ensure they build really solid foundations for a lifetime of learning. Babies who are provided with the right sorts of activities at the right ages and stages of development will benefit enormously – socially, emotionally and academically.
During the course of the Active Babies Smart Kids series you will learn the great value and enormous fun of movement in your baby’s life and that movement is the key to learning.
Enjoy!
The Active Babies Smart Kids introductory video: