The Little Gym

Just note to say that we have enrolled Parker at "The Little Gym"! "The Little Gym" is essentially a gymnastics center and they offer various classes for different age groups. We enrolled Parker in the class for 19 months-2 1/2 year olds even though he won't technically be 19 months until the end of this month because the class is 5 months old and this way at least for the remainder of the class, he'll be with kids his own age instead of being the absolute oldest one in his class. Each week, they sing songs, do a group activity (sometimes it's a big parachute, sometimes it's bouncing together on a large inflatable mat, etc.), have free play/exploration of the equipment, learn 2 "skills" on specific equipment taught by the instructor, play with balls and blow bubbles! :)

We went to a preview class 2 weeks ago and well...it didn't go so well! :( He clung to me like crazy and refused to do any of the fun things the other kids were doing! He didn't even want out of my arms to explore when they got to do free play/exploration in the gym. He has always been kind of a shy guy and is usually slow to warm up to new environments so I wasn't all that surprised that it took him so long to adjust. Anyone who personally knows Parker knows how much he LOVES balls! Well, toward the end of the little gym class they always get out balls for the kids to play with. Once Parker had that ball he had tons of fun with it and finally quit clinging to my side! I could tell by the way Parker was acting at that first class that he would probably be much more willing to try things out the following time we went and that it would be beneficial to enroll him in the class for him to have the experience!

His class is Wednesday's from 10:15-11:00 am, so yesterday we went to his little gym class for the second time. He did MUCH better than the first time we went! It was really funny because as soon as we went into the gym, he ran over to the door of the room where the instructor (Miss Sherry) had gotten the balls out for them to play with the time before and started saying "ball, ball" over and over again! I thought it was so cool that he had remembered that was where she had gotten the balls from the week before! What a smart boy to remember that a week later! :) He climbed all over the equipment when it was free play time and even tried the "skills" with the other kids! I love that for his age group it is a parent/child class where you are with your child the whole time and get to participate with them as they explore and learn new things! When we got home and saw James, I asked him to tell daddy what he did at the little gym and he instantly said "balls, bubbles!!" in a very excited voice! I'm looking forward to next Wednesday and I think Parker is too! :)