North Shore Summer Update

It has been a really busy year on the Shore, we have just opened our Birkenhead Saturday classes so now have sessions running at Takapuna, Mairangi Bay, Devonport, Birkenhead, and Sunnynook each week. 

2014 Dates & Summer Sale: Our summer break this year’s runs from the last sessions on 14 December through to starting up again on the 1 February – we also have a Summer Sale on at the moment for any renewals booked before 14 December (contact Sally on aucklandnorth@littlekickers.co.nz for up to 30% discount on sessions).

In 2014 we will be opening Saturday classes in Albany and Orewa – so plenty of football being played on the North Shore!

Creating Partnerships: Little Kickers are also pleased to announce a partnership with Albany United football club  – Albany have a strong reputation in Junior football (they currently work in conjunction with the Ricky Herbert Academy) and Little Kickers will be running sessions with them at Oteha Valley School in 2014. Our little kickers will directly link into the club, graduating to junior football with a defined pathway and skills base. 

Watch this space as we are also going to be putting together a similar partnership with another local North Shore team in early 2014 for one of our current venues.

With the summer coming some of our Devonport sessions will be held outside – so remember sunnies, hats and suncream with plenty of water to drink.

We will also have some new coaches starting in the new year – Piers is from the UK and used to be a body double for Fernando Torres! alongside some other new faces across the franchise.

Have a great Summer and keep practising!

Sally, Matt & the North shore team

Little Kickers classes are coming to Howick & Manukau!

Little Kickers provides boys and girls from 18 months through to 7 years of age with an early introduction to football (soccer) and is coming to Howick and Manukau in the New Year by young mum Janet Cho.

Janet had always wanted to do something to engage children in the local community, and to run her own business. With two sons, aged 2 years and 4 months, Janet knew that going back to work full-time wasn’t going to work for their family.

“When I first came across Little Kickers I knew it would be perfect for my energetic two year old, then when I learnt of the franchise opportunity I knew it would be perfect for me too!

It enables me to spend more time with the children and I won’t feel like I’m missing out on part of their childhood.  I also noticed that there was little around offering a gentle introduction to little team sports for pre-school kids in the local area."

We have so much demand coming from the area and Janet is just so in-tune with what Little Kickers is all about that we can't wait to get classes started and have a ball with your kids!

Janet is starting classes in Dannemora and Pakuranga in Feb & March 2014 and more due to start throughout the year so enquire today to secure your place.


EARLY BIRD SPECIAL: enrol now and get 50% off registration + 1 free trial class or an additional class onto your enrolment saving over $30.00!

E-mail: manukaueast@littlekickers.co.nz

Phone: (09) 273 3338

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Play not Push - Little Kickers Philosophy 

The Little Kickers pre-school football programme first started over 10 years ago in London, England.  Since then, the programme has grown phenomenally, and now provides over 20,000 enthusiastic young footballers with the chance to let of steam and get fit each week.  There are classes operating in locations as diverse as the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, Ecuador and of course NZ each week.   This growth looks set to continue as children from around the world take the opportunity to gain an early introduction to the beautiful game of football. 

The program was developed by early childhood educators in conjunction with top UK FA coaches and works on the basis that children are much more likely to learn if their imaginations are engaged and skills are introduced through fun games, rather than formal drills. The company’s motto “Play not Push” reflects this, and the emphasis that Little Kickers place on providing a fun environment for children to learn in, rather than a competitive one. 

Blue September 2010

My father is one of the lucky ones. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and lives to tell the tale. It seems most people have had someone close to them be diagnosed with cancer and it’s definitely not a ‘it won’t happen to me’ scenario as it’s just all too common now.

No longer can you just be a bystander to this diagnosis, if we can all help each other and ourselves with understanding early diagnosis and taking precautionary measures the more lives we can save.

“In New Zealand, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. About 2,500 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year.” (http://www.prostate.org.nz/) ‘Men’ are husbands, fathers and grandfathers who affect even the youngest generation. It is Blue September 2010 (Prostate Cancer Awareness month) and it seems many men have a dislike for acknowledging that something isn’t quite right or if they do acknowledge it they don’t want to act on it. It’s often up to those around them to push them to go to the Doctor and get a check up.

Now you may wonder what this has to do with us at Little Kickers and preschool football?

A study (‘NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study’) carried out over 6 years shows clearly that overweight and obese men are more likely to die from prostate cancer than men of normal weight, though no more likely to actually develop the disease.

Little Kickers is about starting that all important task of introducing daily movement as a lifestyle behaviour and if this can be done through the beautiful game of football (soccer) that they love to play than that’s even better.

The importance of being active comes with it the recognition of keeping healthy and awareness of your body in a positive way (even at their young age). We start off getting children to enjoy being active. We keep our sessions light hearted and fun without putting undue pressure on succeeding at what they are doing. We support your child’s effort whether their ‘big kick’ off the sandcastle (aka coloured marker) was actually a small kick or they missed it completely. It doesn’t matter to us, we’ll get them to keep trying and give them plenty of high fives along the way. Their enjoyment at the sessions is the most important thing.

By introducing the love of sports into their lives we hope to instil the love of healthy living which leads to a healthier lifestyle. This in turn leads to a healthier family environment and generations of healthy families.

If we can start this process at pre-school age we are more likely to succeed.


More information about Prostate Cancer and Blue September:
http://www.prostate.org.nz
http://blueseptember.org.nz/index.php

Full-time versus Part-time mum

I recently got back in contact with an old school friend who I found out was pregnant with her first baby. She messaged me back asking if I was lucky enough to be a ‘full-time mum’ i.e. a stay at home mum. It took a while for me to get my head around that question and how I would answer it.

I could have easily asked the same question to expectant friends prior to having children myself but my views on the ideals and benefits of being a stay at home mum versus a working mum drastically changed now having kids.

Pre-kids I had a lot of patience, in good health and had good energy levels. I am fortunate enough to have my husband work a 5 minutes drive away with the leniency to come home if required and an understanding boss who happens to have 2 sets of twins! When my boys (twins) reached around 15 months old I was finding it increasingly hard to keep up my energy levels and patience to survive day on day. It became regular practice for me to call my husband up once a week pulling my hair out wondering how I was going to survive the next hour and it’s not as if my boys are different to any other toddlers. I soon realised something needed to change maybe it was time to look at some part-time work. I love my boys to bits but I felt like I wasn’t being the best parent that I could be.

I actually find my self luckier being a ‘part-time mum’ than a ‘full-time mum’ and I don’t mean in terms of finances, I mean in terms of energy levels and patience.

We were lucky enough to stumble across Little Kickers which has been my saviour in life in terms of how I care for my kids and in a way my sanity!

We started off with an independent nanny who luckily the boys adored to bits but unfortunately she left with minimum notice and left us stuck as to what to do. It felt like ages that I spent discussing the pros and cons of day-care and whether we should investigate this option further. I had only recently read a report from one of the boys’ paediatricians Simon Rowley who wrote about the negative impact of day-care on children under the age of 2 so I was even more reluctant to go down this route. My main concern was the boys’ happiness as I thought they may be stressed or uncared for versus a nanny. My pre-conceived understanding on day-care was that there wouldn’t be enough carers to properly care for of all the children.

How wrong was I, after visiting 5 centres I found the perfect centre for my boys. The carers were so loving and understanding: they kept to their routine, fed them healthy lunches and had more than enough energy to keep up with them.

I spent 3 days with the boys at the centre until I felt as though I could leave them alone. There were a few tears at the start (by them) but once I was around the corner and out of sight they soon stopped. They now attend day-care 3 mornings and 1 short day a week and what a better parent and person I am for it.

I feel like a new person and I know I am a much better parent for it. During my working day I get to speak to other business’s, parents, suppliers, employees and generally feel like I exist as a person and not just someone’s mum. When I pick the boys up from day-care I have this rush of love for them. I especially love it when they don’t know that I’ve arrived and I get to see them playing with the other children and then when they do see me I get an assortment of emotions from them. These range from running away from me because they want to stay and play to dancing around in excitement and giving me huge hugs as they wave goodbye to the carers (even if I’m not ready to go yet).

Once home I put work aside and use all my energy in interacting and playing with them, I adore hearing their giggles and now have the patience and energy to deal with their terrible two’s better. I love that they come home from day-care having learnt new words or actions to songs and seeing them develop socially.

I’ve realised my life needs more than just kids to make it complete and being a ‘part-time mum’ works perfectly for me, I actually feel lucky that I can be one over a ‘full-time’ mum. I am sill a wife, business women and a friend and to add to that a loving mum who is trying to find that perfect work/life balance.

My hat goes off to full-time mums as I often feel you don’t get enough recognition for what you do in today’s society and how hard your days can be.

Yvette; mum, wife, business partner, coach, friend....