How to Teach Your Daughter How to Do Cartwheels

Practice the stance. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your arms extended up in the air in relative alignment with your feet. Ask your daughter to ape this position. Tell her that this is the position she will be in when she is midway through her cartwheel.

Pad the area. Your daughter cannot learn to cartwheel effectively if she is petrified of falling, as she will hold back some of her energy and not completely commit to the move. To decrease the likelihood that she feels fear over the prospect, pad the area with gymnastic mats. If you, like most people, do not possess an assortment of these mats, use inexpensive yoga or exercise mats in their place, or practice your cartwheeling on a forgiving soft-grass surface. Do not use make-shift pads such as pillows or blankets, as these unapproved padding devices increase the likelihood that she will fall.

Use visual cues. To help your daughter see where her hands should land when she does her cartwheel, create hand marks. Trace your daughter's hands onto paper and cut them out. Tape these hand prints firmly on the ground where your daughter's hands should land when she performs the move properly.

Try the seesaw. Ask your child to stand in the practiced cartwheel stance, then perform a seesaw by leaning to her right, bending her right leg and placing both of her hands flat on the ground. Instruct your daughter to gradually take the weight off of her left foot and swing it into the air, using her other appendages to support her body weight.

Teach her the cartwheel chant. Tell your daughter that, when performed properly, the cartwheel will follow a "hand, hand, foot, foot," meaning both hands hit the floor seconds apart, followed by both feet. Repeat this chant with your daughter to get her used to the process.

Take some of the weight off her hands. Allow your daughter to actually try a cartwheel while you support her extended legs. This practice will assist her in gradually building her arm muscles and make her feel less as if she is going at it on her own.

Serve as a spotter. Gradually retract your assistance, allowing her to take on as much of the cartwheel responsibility as possible. As you pull back and allow her to do it on her own, she will become more and more comfortable with her skill.