New Gymnastics

Thursday we tried out a new gymnastics gym for the kids. At this gym, both of the kids are at the age where they're in instructor led classes. I decided to search to see if there was something that I liked better than our old gymnastics place for a couple of reasons, but mainly for Annabelle's sake. If you asked her if she liked it, she would tell you that she does, however, I really didn't like her teacher at all or the setup of the classes. At the old gym, they have parent/child classes until 2 years, then they have a 3-6 year old class. There's a HUGE ability difference between the ages of 3 and 6, so even though Annabelle was doing really well for her age, she was comparing herself to 6 year olds and always felt like she wasn't doing well at all, which was hurting her confidence in her abilities. The ability difference for that age range probably wouldn't even be an issue if she'd had a better teacher though. Her teacher was very non-kid-friendly and never praised the kids, only corrected them when they did something wrong. I have to admit though, I have never liked this particular teacher because when Annabelle was only like 15 months old, she was climbing over a barrel and said it was "blue" (and it was actually a teal blue), and before I could say anything, this particular teacher said "No, that's green." While the teal blue color could go either way, I would have called it blue myself if I'd had to choose. And, even if she really did think it was green, she didn't even say something like "Good try, but this is green." Anyway... I digress...

So, we checked out this new gym. Both kids went in all excited. Annabelle, I wasn't worried about at all. Corgan... he doesn't do so well with following instructions from new adults sometimes. Corgan's class is 2.5 to 3.5 year olds and Annabelle was in the 4.5 to 5.5 year old class. Their classes started out together for stretches, then broke off for the other stuff. Annabelle loves to follow directions and try new things, so this whole thing was right up her alley. But not Corgan's. He sat on the sidelines watching everyone else stretch and wouldn't do it himself. Then when it was time for them to break off into their own classes, Corgan really got stubborn and didn't even want to follow the class. I had to go in there with him to coax him over to his class. Then he didn't want to do any of the activities anyway. I ended up just taking him outside where he cried and said he wanted to go back in. I explained that he had to do what the teacher asked him to do and he agreed to do it. So we tried again. When we went back, he did about half of the activities that he was asked to do, with me standing next to him coaxing him into doing every little thing. His teacher was very nice and very understanding about the whole thing. In the end, she said that if we decided to join there, I would be welcome to attend the class too until he was comfortable on his own.

Annabelle, on the other hand... she did great! She loved trying all of these new things. The class itself is more like real gymnastics rather than a jungle gym. She tried everything and loves the challenges! Even though I was busy trying to get Corgan to do what he was supposed to be doing, I kept an eye and ear on Annabelle's class too to see how I felt about what they were doing and their teacher. When Annabelle was on the trampoline, the teacher had them jump, land on their booties, then jump back up to their feet. Annabelle tried it, but just wasn't getting it. I observed the teacher instructing her on how to do it, then letting her try it a few more times. By the 3rd try, she was doing it. The smile of pride on her face was priceless! At another point, the teacher had all 5 of the kids walking on the balance beam. Most of them were doing it on their own since the teacher was only able to hold 2 of the kids hands at one time. Annabelle was a bit nervous at first (on a regular height beam), but the teacher encouraged her enough that she gained the confidence to do it all by herself. She was even able to get Annabelle to hop on the beam without holding her hand!

After the class, I asked Annabelle whether she liked "old gymnastics" or "new gymnastics" better. Without hesitation, she answered "New Gymnastics!" That was just what I had wanted to hear! So, this summer, I think we'll be enrolling both kids in "New Gymnastics," and hopefully Corgan will warm up to the class quickly!