Well, did my first completely on my own set of lessons the other day. There were three - the tiny ones (from 3 - 8 years old, 45 minutes), the juniors (8-14 year olds, 1.25 hours), and adults (14+, though most were 25+, 1.50 hours).

My biggest headache, despite the fact I've been through it all myself, was trying to remember which techniques went with which belt! lol!

I wouldn't call the tiny kids a nightmare, but wow! Herding cats comes to mind. Generally we do things in a circle on the mats, but I lined them up in front of me for some line work at one point and had one little one who just wanted to stand pretty much on my toes - I moved back, she moved forward. I got her in line, she'd come straight back out and stand toe to toe...Then there was the "budding romance" between two of them - if he wasn't pulling her hair, she was planting kisses on his cheek (much to his disgust, I should add).

And then (of course) they all wanted to know what happened to my hair. And then, during the talk on stranger danger one of them asked to go to the toilet and as soon as they'd gone the rest followed like dominos... Man, those little kids made me feel like a complete newb! Give me uni students any day.

But, we played a few games - they enjoyed one I made up: ninja pirate treasure hunt lol! I hid an Eiffel Tower snow dome under some cones, called it my pirate treasure and we followed the treasure map in my head to find it - 3 squat jumps left, 5 pushups over there etc. A workout disguised as a game is definitely the way to go.

Juniors and adults were a lot better in terms of focus.

Anyway, it was fun. I'm glad I don't do it for a living, especially the little ones - that 45 minutes felt like 2 hours. But there was good feedback, we all had some fun and learned stuff. Off to do the same again with a different group on Monday, with some valuable lessons learned (like sending them to the toilet before class....)

James.