Today we’d like to introduce you to Natalie Siedschlag.
Natalie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am Natalie Siedschlag, born and raised in a suburb of Philadelphia. After completing college in Minnesota, I joined the military as an officer, and ultimately became a helicopter pilot, which taught me many critical skills in management, and operational leadership, and the experience truly shaped my personal values.
I have always had an entrepreneurial spirit and have operated multiple side hustles, being driven by the desire to actively challenge myself. After 10 years in the military, my husband Tyler and I decided to invest in a franchise business, and we came upon Kidokinetics.
As parents of a young child, having had her first years of life during the COVID-19 pandemic era, we felt so compelled by the mission of Kidokinetics to get young children active and reinforce the love of fitness for life. It just seemed like the perfect fit for our family and our community, where we really saw the need for a program like this.
At the time (Fall 2021) an article came across my newsfeed that cited a CDC research study on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and childhood obesity (https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037a3.htm?s_cid=mm7037a3_w). The results were profound, but really not at all surprising.
“School closures, disrupted routines, increased stress, and less opportunity for physical activity and proper nutrition” were likely the key factors in the increased weight gain seen in American children. Those most affected were young school-aged children. Severely obese children gained 8.8 pounds annually pre-pandemic, compared to a whopping 14.6 pounds in 2020.
To us, this was a sign. We loved the mission and core values of this business, so we were 100% on board and haven’t looked back. We are so very excited to bring this powerful opportunity to our Memphis community.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Tyler and I are fully invested in this program, but we knew we couldn’t do it alone. Without having a personal background in physical education ourselves, we knew from the beginning that we needed to hire a stellar team of coaches to provide the quality and energy that we envisioned in our program.
It took us a little bit of time to find and hire the right Program Director, but we ultimately found the perfect person for the role — Karlin Brooks, who has an extensive background in coaching children, the education to back it up, roots in our community, and the charisma that we sought to help us lead this mission to Memphis.
Another challenge that we are experiencing is just getting exposure to institutions about our program. There has been a lot of interest from parents, but we are still in the early stages of growing our footprint of physical locations around the city and suburbs to host these classes.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Kidokinetics Memphis is a new business to our community, but we are a nationwide franchise that has been operating in South Florida for over 20 years.
Kidokinetics is a mobile sport and fitness program focused on enabling young kids to learn sports and love fitness for life. We expose kids 6m to 12 years old to over 20 different sports and bring a new sport every week. It’s non-competitive and engaging to keep their attention and build confidence in their skills. The kids move all class long, improve their coordination, balance, and gross motor skills, and also learn some basic anatomy.
We bring fitness to your schools, child care centers, pre-schools, parks, recreation centers, and even your neighborhood or your backyard! There is nothing like Kidokinetics in Memphis.
We are unique in that children can be introduced to all different sports from week to week and parents love that they can expose their children to different sports without having to commit to anyone sport for a whole season. In schools and child care centers, we give teachers a much-needed break in their day and allow their children to get up and get active.
Typical classes are 45 minutes long and children are enrolled for multi-week sessions. We love that we can literally bring our program anywhere. Just give us the kids and some space and we will have some fun. We have parent & me classes that range from ages 6 months to 24 months, 2-3-year-old programs, 3-5-year-old programs, 6-9, and 9-12.
We are so proud of the fact that we are inspiring a whole generation of children to enjoy a FUN way to fitness.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
“Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head” is a book by Carla Hannaford, a renowned neurophysiologist and educator who argues that sensorimotor movement from infancy through adulthood is absolutely crucial to being able to learn.
She shares an insightful perspective on the role of the body in developing skills to think and learn. Drawing upon research conducted on physiology, neuroscience, and child development Hannaford describes exactly the reasoning why everyone must value programs such as Kidokinetics for the lifelong wellbeing of our children.
Pricing:
- We offer Free demo days for institutions like schools and childcare centers that want to see us in action before committing to the program! Just give us a call to set one up.
- Enrichment classes are usually offered at organizations such as schools, daycares, and afterschool/summer programs. This is the option where parents register their children ($18-22 per class per child, discount can be offered for siblings). For example, if parents pay for an 8-week 1x per week session at the minimum $18, it would be $144 plus the annual registration fee of $35 (includes a shirt).
- Public Programming is just like enrichment, but can be held at churches, parks, recreation centers, and other gathering places. Public programs start at $18-22 per child per class (depending on the venue). Parents can find these public programs listed on our website under “events”.
- Physical Education classes are reserved for schools or summer camps that want to book a minimum of 2 hours per week. The rate starts at $120 per hour with discounted pricing for 4 or more hours per week.
- Private Classes are priced at $100 per class for up to 4 children plus $10 per additional child. This is usually reserved for in-home daycares (<12 children) and small groups of families, such as home school groups that want to remain exclusive.
- Parties/Events are booked for a minimum of 2 hours at $150 per hour.
Contact Info:
- Email: memphis@kidokinetics.com
- Website: www.kidokinetics.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kidokineticsmemphis/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kidokineticsmemphis
Image Credits
Victoria Genova
