Q&A with Charlotte

Charlotte Q&A

Tens of thousands of you enjoyed our daily Tumble Tots at Home live sessions during the lockdown and here we find out a little more about Charlotte Bedford, the inspiration behind the wonderful classes

What is your role at Tumble Tots? I am the Technical Director which means that I am responsible for the content in our programme including any development. Normally I would visit our franchisees across the country and help ensure they are delivering classes so that every little one gets the best experience possible. However, due to lockdown, you may have seen me live on Facebook delivering digital classes! How and when did you first get involved with Tumble Tots? I got involved with Tumble Tots over 10 years ago after I had finished my university degree in English Literature. I began as the Technical Co-ordinator, working under the Technical Director who was taught by the person who created Tumble Tots. A lot of what I know has been passed down to me but I also ran classes for a nearby franchise which was

a great way to learn and fully understand Tumble Tots. What do you enjoy the most? Personally, my favourite part, and I think most franchisees would agree, is seeing little ones grow and develop. I don’t get to see that as much now but when I was live we had so many children who watched everyday and it was great to hear how they had improved over 6 months of taking part at home. How many Tumble Tots at Home classes did you present? I was live every weekday from 18th March until 28th August and in total did 134(ish) classes including 13 baby lessons, 8 action song specials, 7 Gymbobs, 5 festival days, 2 takeovers and 1 special singalong on the Gloworm Festival Facebook page to mark what should have been their 5th anniversary. How difficult was it to set up Tumble Tots at Home so quickly after the classes were postponed? I came up with the idea quite quickly and started live sessions two days after we announced classes were postponed. Setting up in my living room didn’t take much time either and wasn’t hard to do, but it’s great to have my living room back to normal! What was the first class like? I was really nervous for the first class and we had a few technical glitches but I was so happy that so many people joined in! We had a massive 387 23

likes, 260 comments, 259 shares and 23,000 views which helps with language and memory. All our for the first live and this kept growing. The highest activities stimulate brain development which is number of views for one of our live sessions was also really important. an incredible 83,000! How does early years activity benefit children What type things did you learn as the classes when they start school? developed? Teachers have told me that they know the After a few classes, I soon got into the swing difference between children who have attended of things, gained confidence and got a better Tumble Tots and those who haven’t. Our idea of what our audience wanted and needed. classes help children learn to listen and follow I experimented with different themes, focusses instructions from a grown-up who isn’t their and challenges to keep the classes engaging but parent, which is what they need to do when they what we learned most is that this is a great way to start school to be able to be taught effectively. bring classes into people’s homes, not just during What are the most important skills children lockdown, but in the future for children who might not have classes in their area, so watch this space! acquire at the Tumble Tots classes? There are so many benefits that I don’t think we How did your previous experience help? can say what the most important skill is however Knowing the programme inside and out helped most parents say that coming to classes improves massively and meant that I didn’t have too much their little ones confidence which will help them to plan every day and didn’t even have to rehearse in all aspects of life. (which was also a big time saver). Obviously there What type of things have you learnt over the were some days that things didn’t go to plan and I years regards the range of benefits children get had to improvise! Last year I earned my Masters in Child Development which has also helped with other aspects such as impact on emotional and well-being and better understanding the correlation between physical activity and brain development. from physical activity as a baby? We’ve always known that physical activity is beneficial for children’s physical health, but overtime, from external research and studies, we have learned that physical activity also What has the reaction from members been like? helps with their emotional well-being, cognitive We’ve had a really positive response which we are development, and other physical skills that we so pleased about. Lots of parents have commented don’t directly include in classes. For example, on how it’s kept their little ones happy, active and fine motor skill development can only come entertained throughout lockdown and given them about once gross motor skills are improved, so something to look forward to as well as bringing crawling will eventually help children with their a sense of normality, especially for our members handwriting skills. who were missing classes. To watch any of Charlotte’s Tumble Tots at Home Why is Tumble Tots still so well-known after classes, please visit www.youtube.com/TumbleTotsUK 40 years? I think we are well-known because we have been going for 40 years and parents that bring their little ones remember coming as children themselves and know how much fun it was. It may sound biased, but I think that going for this long just proves not only how good our classes are but how timeless they are as well as how physical activity will always be really important for child development. Why do you think the programme is so important for children? The core of our programme is developing physical skills but every child takes something different away from classes. For some children, this is their first encounter with others of their age which helps them to socialise. Taking part in a structured class helps them learn how to take turns and be patient. Children also learn songs and repeat them 25