Gymnastics

Three and a half is such a fun age, isn't it? (Come on, don't you remember?) With Adam in school all day, we thought it was time to give him an extra curricular activity, something he can do to expend some after-school energy, learn new skills, and be social with new friends.

We ruled out toddler soccer. We thought he'd gain more from gynmastics.

The local gyms by us offer 1 free trial class before enrolling your child, so we tried out 2 separate gyms in our area.

The first gym lacked in aesthetics and spectator-ability, but I really appreciated his coach there and the skills they introduced him to. Here's his very first gymnastics class and the skill "stations" he conquered.

This class was at 6:30pm class which was a little later than we wanted. We ended up enrolling him in a different gym at 5:30pm with better facilities and more parental access, and while we preferred the first coach, he is still learning simple skills that will benefit his body-space awareness, balance and coordination. Plus, in his new class he's only 1 of 2 students so far, so he definitely gets individual attention.

His favorite part of class is getting to jump in the foam block pit and bouncing on the trampoline.

He also loves getting his stamps at the end of class, but only after holding his "Spiderman" stance while singing his ABC's. (I practiced with him at home -- I need to be doing these every day! Surprisingly difficult!)

He is definitely high-energy after his school day, so this is perfect for him to run and bounce and tumble away some pent-up energy. He is sometimes too interested in playing with the other equipment but I have to remind myself that he's three. At least he loves to go and as long as he is loving it, we are loving it. And maybe one of these sessions I'll stop taking pictures and video. For now, I am that Mom.