Saturday, October 15, 2005

Tumbling

Today was JR's second tumbling class. Since last week's class ended abruptly when Dad opted to carry the crying toddler home after 5 minutes of unrelenting tears, we tried to make this class work a bit better. We talked about tumbling class during the week. We went early. We brought along one of his friends so he wouldn't have to walk into class alone(virtually the whole class is made up of kids from his daycare). We introduced ourselves to the teacher before class. We told him that he didn't have to do anything; he could just watch.

Worked like a charm. He watched for a while, then opted to join in. Granted, the whole time he was glued to me (I got a good workout, at least), but he did almost every activity except the initial jumping jacks.

JR told us he really liked class and wants to go again, but his dad thought that the teacher's approach (introduce an activity, expect the kids to do it without any instruction) was reminiscent of the dreaded gym classes of his childhood. I figure that when teaching a class of 3 year olds, there really is not much point in focusing on technique.

Tonight, JR could tell me exactly which kids had done the class alone and which had needed mommies with them. He also wondered why his little buddy C, who loved class last week, wouldn't do anything this week and ended up leaving with his dad after 20 minutes of hiding behind dad's legs.

3-year-olds are weird.

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