I've been so bad about posting that there may not be many of you left, but if you're out there and a BTDT parent, I have a question.
Sera loves, loves, loves to dance and bounce and hop and be flipped upside down. I'm looking into getting her in a class because I think she would love it.
My experience with any type of class like this is nil. I was enrolled in one for a short time when I was five. My mother tells me the instructor asked her not to bring me back because my joints cracked so much that they found it disconcerting. She also said that I was not flexible nor limber. She was right in her assessment, but wrong to kick out a child who was not a discipline issue. I loved class and being kicked out was very traumatic for me.
But I digress, this is about Sera. The companies I found around here who offer classes seem pretty hard core. The gymnastics place is the real deal where they train for competitions, and the dance studio is just as serious. I don't want her in training. I want her to have fun and learn to love one of these activities, but which? Gymnastics or dance?
Sera loves, loves, loves to dance and bounce and hop and be flipped upside down. I'm looking into getting her in a class because I think she would love it.
My experience with any type of class like this is nil. I was enrolled in one for a short time when I was five. My mother tells me the instructor asked her not to bring me back because my joints cracked so much that they found it disconcerting. She also said that I was not flexible nor limber. She was right in her assessment, but wrong to kick out a child who was not a discipline issue. I loved class and being kicked out was very traumatic for me.
But I digress, this is about Sera. The companies I found around here who offer classes seem pretty hard core. The gymnastics place is the real deal where they train for competitions, and the dance studio is just as serious. I don't want her in training. I want her to have fun and learn to love one of these activities, but which? Gymnastics or dance?
Labels: daily life
7 Comments:
Do you have any My Gyms around? My daughter loved her time as did my goddaughter. We also have American Twisters.
How about the local YMCA? Our girls both attend dance there, and they have gymnastics too for toddlers.
Agreed on the YMCA, they tend to be a little lower-key, less-competitive about their sports in general, more about the athletics/movement, less about the competition/winning.
But if that's not an option, I find that private dance classes, at least at the younger ages, are a bit lower key than gymnastics. The thing to keep an eye out for is cost - they'll quote you an initial per-lesson or per-month cost, but there are very likely a TON of extra costs as recital-time comes near; a recital fee, costumes, etc., etc... it was infuriating for me, because we were on such a tight budget at the time, and I just needed to be able to plan for these things. They acted like it was self-evident, but I was shocked at how much everything cost.
I am looking into the YMCA as well. The two places I was looking into both had the advantage of being about 5 minutes from my house. One YMCA is about 30 minutes away, and the other is about 20. Not insurmountable, but not as convenient.
We were in the same situation when EJ started dance. Unless the child needs serious discipline to get through such activities, the YMCA is a great place to have fun and the kids were allowed to do it in jeans and tennis shoes if they wanted. Now she's older and there are shoe and leotard/tights restrictions, but that's okay. The Y wasn't too convenient for us either, but we did a short (8 week) gymnastics stint there, as well as swimming lessons. Updated pic of my dancin' queen on the blog this week (it's a pic of her getting ready for tap/jazz class, but she's also doing ballet and (gasp) hip hop, which I think is her new favorite! :)
As I remember, I was also kicked out of dance with you - I didn't remember that it was because your bones creaked - but I also wondered if I had hidden within me more talent. Virginia had a terrible experience doing gymnastics when she was around 3 or 4 - it was way too intense and she was not as skilled as the other girls her age, who had been taking gymnastics for several years. They wanted to demote her to a younger age group - I felt like I had signed up my 3 year old for swim lessons and been told that since she couldn't swim she wasn't ready for lessons.
To get to the point, we have started Tumbling and it has been the perfect place for her - its a woman who does cheerleading training. While that sounds like too much also (competitive cheerleading) - this particular place is very low key and meets you where you are - they haven't asked for Virginia to join the traveling team yet, probably because she's not good enough, but Virginia has fun. She's jumping on trampolines, learning cartwheels, flips and handsprings - but no balance beams or dance routines.
We are looking into tumbling also, but around here the child needs to be at least three. We are some years off. We don't want Emi to do comptetitve gymnastics, that's just us - and that's all they seem to have around here, but we realize that she'd probably love it (being Danger Girl and all). That is why we are hoping the tumbling place will be fun and enough for her, but we will watch her. If she's that interested, we will put our feelings aside about gymnastics.
There is a semi-local (30 min drive) martial arts place that has a class for 2.5 to 4 years. That will be Emi next summer. They work on falling properly, self defense and moves, but no (NO) hitting others. We are going to investigate it more, but we are seriously leaning in this direction.
So, while we are not BTDT's yet, thought I'd toss this out there.
Cheers, Kiy
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