Little Kickers classes are coming to Howick & Manukau, Auckland

Little Kickers provides boys and girls from 18 months through to 7 years of aged 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 son, aged 2 years and 4 months, Janet knew that going back to work fulltime 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.

I always wanted to start my own business and love dealing with kids so decided to take on the Little Kickers franchise for the area myself!”
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.

So why was Little Kickers set up? Partly because the UK founders’ football-mad children had nowhere to play but the health-conscious founders also felt the need to do something to respond to the epidemic proportions that childhood obesity had reached. They felt that providing children with a positive introduction to sport would help nip this problem in the bud. Studies have shown that young children who adopt healthy eating and physical activity patterns are substantially less likely to become overweight adults: it is much easier to prevent children from becoming overweight than to correct the problem at a later date.

Website: www.littlekickers.co.nz
ends

© Scoop Media