Nine-year-old Magdelyn Gibbons, a 4th grade Springs Homeschool student, is an accomplished acrobatic gymnast.
 |
… |  |
… |  |
Acrobatic gymnastics, or Acro, is a competitive sport in which partners perform routines consisting of acrobatic moves, dance and tumbling, set to music. Her mother, Cameron, noted that it is similar to Cirque du Soleil performances “in that it consists of partners balancing on each other and flipping off of one another.”
Magdelyn began gymnastics at age 6, and developed an interest in Acro after seeing a performance. She joined an Acro team in 2013, and has since participated in a variety of competitions. She trains a minimum of 12 hours per week, and in 2015 will participate in competitions in San Luis Obispo (March 1), Rancho Santa Margarita (March 7), and Riverside (April 12). She hopes to qualify for state and regional championships.
Competing can be challenging, Magdelyn said. She remarked, “I have to fight and push myself when my body hurts and it wants to quit. At competitions, I have to calm myself down and trust that I have practiced hard enough.”
Magdelyn lives in Beaumont. She has been a Springs students for two years. She likes being homeschooled, her mother said, because “She enjoys her independence in learning and loves that she can plan and pick her preference of studies for each year.”
Homeschool has also given her the opportunity to practice and compete in Acro. Cameron explained, “Magdelyn often trains late in the evenings and has often had to learn new choreography with little notice. It has been wonderful to be able to adjust school as her training times adjust.”
Outside of Acro and school, Magdelyn enjoys video games, adventure stories, craft-making and playing on the trampoline. She hopes one day to be a singer and zoologist. She must be careful what she eats, she said, because she has an allergic reaction to tree nuts.
She added, “I am a Christian, and the verse that encourages me most is Philippians 4:13 [‘I can do all things in him who strengthens me.’]”
