What is Ready Bodies? | Choo-Choo Choose To Move

Ready Bodies is the creation of Athena Oden, a physical therapist who saw the need to share what she knew with the teachers of the district she served in order to provide for the children with immature sensory and motor systems that were building poor skills on faulty backgrounds. Her goal is to help children develop the skills necessary for learning readiness, and “mastery of the environment.” After attending her workshop, I immediately saw the benefit of using her curriculum to provide for the students at White Oak, including my own son! As most educators recognize, a couple of factors have caused students of this generation to enter school with immature sensory and motor systems: our society has become increasingly unsafe to allow children to roam and play and the technological advances have provided our children a safe alternative to outside play in the form of television, video game, and computer activities.

Our lab is called Brain Train Depot, because the purpose of all the activities are to develop the brain, and each student rotates from station to station. After entering the lab, students grab a mat and go through a series of reflex warm-ups. There are ten stations they rotate through by spending 1 1/2 to 2 minutes at each station. The stations focus on:

Boardwork
Tactile
Vestibular
Proprioceptive
Eye-hand-foot
Locomotor
Balance
Motor planning
Ball workout
Obstacle Course

Each K – 2nd grade class attends the lab 45 minutes each week. The kindergarten classes may attend up to three times a week in the first six week period.

For more information about the Ready Bodies, Learning Minds motor lab, go to www.readybodies.com. There you will find research information, seminar schedules, and a way to order the Ready Bodies, Learning Minds book and activity guide.