Jolly Hockey Tots

Jolly Hockey Tots – Mummy Elephant’s 1st Experience

Hello, my name is Mrs Stompy and I live with my husband Mr Stompy, our son Jolly who is 3 and our baby girl, Ellie who is 6 months old.

I have been looking for something active for Jolly to do for a while. He likes sports, loves running around and being outside. Jolly sometimes struggles with listening and sharing and I have noticed this more since Ellie came along. I would also like Jolly to socialise with other children and if I could meet with other adults that would be great too.

I found the Jolly Hockey Tots website and it looked great, their motto is “Making tomorrow’s stars today”. To think that maybe my Jolly could be a star one day. It also said that children learn new skills and can achieve bronze, silver, gold medals and a trophy, I know Jolly would love this and it will keep him focussed if he has something to aim for and show off to Mr Stompy. They apparently run their sessions in line with the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework which is brilliant as I’d love to think Jolly is learning too, but most importantly it looks like great fun, so Jolly and I decided to try it out. I contacted JHT and they quickly replied saying Jolly was welcome to come along to his local session and the first one was free!

On the way to our first session I could tell Jolly was feeling a bit nervous and to be honest I was too, but we were both very excited. When we arrived the Coach greeted us with a big ‘hello’ then got down to Jolly’s level and asked him his name. ‘Jolly’ he whispered, holding on to my leg and hiding half behind it. The Coach asked Jolly for a high five and this was great as Jolly loves high fives and gave a very gentle one but he had a big smile.

The Coach then said to all the children ‘Do you think you could line up along the line for me please?’ I smiled at Jolly and gently said ‘Go on.’ He looked worried so the Coach said that he could bring his Mummy with him if he wanted so we went and lined up with the other children.

The Coach said ‘Shall we all jog to the other side of the pitch now?’ The other children eagerly shouted ‘YES’ but Jolly said nothing and turned to look at me. The other children started gently jogging together but Jolly didn’t. I was concerned that this wouldn’t work out for us but then the Coach came over to Jolly and asked if he would like to jog with her? Jolly started jogging with the Coach and I felt so proud of my little cub for being so brave; he jogged all the way across with the Coach. When they got to the other side Coach gave them all a high five and said “Good job”, then they played a game to warm up the rest of their muscles.

After this the children gave us a big wave from the other side of the pitch and then began to run back. Coach suddenly blew her whistle, the children stopped. Jolly surprised me as he too stopped every time, he never stops for me. It was great to watch the children having so much fun and Jolly was listening and doing it brilliantly. I couldn’t believe it, perhaps I should get a whistle!

Next the children all had a drink, then picked up their sticks, Coach helped Jolly find one and measured it against him, he was very excited because the stick had a picture on the side that was a handsome elephant just like him.

Coach reminded all the children how to hold their sticks and showed Jolly how to hold his. All of the children pushed their balls to their adults who gently pushed them back. Jolly could do it, he was fantastic and I got to play too. Coach walked around watching all the children, encouraging them and she gave Jolly a high five and said he was ‘awesome’. He beamed a big smile and told me “Coach thinks I am awesome Mummy”.

The children had so much fun, they did lots of different games and drills to build their confidence and help with spatial awareness. All the drills and games are only a few minutes each, even the Stompy Elephant Game doesn’t last too long, as their concentration is still developing. Sometimes Jolly and I get to play together and sometimes I stand back, let him be independent and talk to the other mums.

At the end of the session all the children cooled down together, it was great to watch and before it was time to go home Coach asked them one by one what they enjoyed doing best today. Today Jolly whispered his answer to me and said ‘I really liked the Stompy Elephant game, Mummy’.

Jolly and I thoroughly enjoyed Jolly Hockey Tots and we’re both really looking forward to next week.

For Jolly’s next session or, if your little one would like to join in the Jolly Hockey Tots fun, then please take a look at our website www.jollyhockeytots.co.uk

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