First Day of Homeschool Gymnastics

Samantha had her first day at homeschool gymnastics yesterday! It was a crazy day! Sam wanted to leave early to walk around the campus and check the gym out, so I packed some of her Easy Readers and her iPod in case we got bored. Between having to run a few errands I forgot about, taking Jessie his gym bag on lunch, and having to turn around half way to Collegedale to go to East Ridge and meet a lady to buy an old window pane-because I thought we had said Friday and we said Thursday...We finally made it to the college with 30 minutes to spare. I was sure that there would be tons of other eager families there are already.

Boy, was I wrong! We were the only ones there, so Samantha and I read some of her books, which she is getting so good at! She is quick and can figure out words that you can't simply sound out! Ten minutes till time, they unlocked the doors. Nobody else was there but us. I was a little worried that there wasn't going to be many kids in her class, especially around her age, but the coach assured me there was lots of kids signed up.

Apparently when you have 4+ children, you tend to run a little late to everything because 1. You don't want to show up early and spend any longer there controlling 4 kids than you have to. and 2. You have to get 4 kids ready! So everybody showed up at exactly 3 o'clock, which is classtime.

There were 24 kids in her class! They looked like they were all between the ages of 5 and 8. There were 5 teachers though, so the ratio was awesome. They did stretches together as a group. (It reminded me of a school gym class.) Then they split off into groups of 4/5 and took turns at different stations. They showed them how to do the moves, and then they did it themselves.

They don't play around when it comes to gym! I thought they would sit down and have circle time, maybe say their names. Nope. Their first words were, "Homeschoolers, RUN!" (I found out later that's because most of the kids there had been in at least one semester, so Sam had to catch on QUICK! And she did.)

Sam's first center was the trampoline. They learned how to jump normal, how to jump and tuck, and then how to jump, land on your butt, come back up, and land on your elbows to force yourself back on your feet. (I was pretty impressed with that because they aren't just showing them and then letting them do something that slightly resembles the move. They are actually working on technique too so they don't get in bad habits. They gave Samantha some extra attention to get her caught up, and they helped her until she got it right. (I thought this would stress Sam out, but she LOVED IT!)

They worked on showing them how to do a headstand. (Sam is sill working on getting her feet on her elbows.) Then did a station with mats and tumbling. They did rings. And they did a station on mats where they stood on the teacher's hands and lifted them in there air. They had to stand straight for 10 seconds without holding on. (She got this first try.) Then they did the long trampoline where they taught them how to do a few bounces and they did turns and taught them some flips. They practiced the new moves down the whole trampoline, and then instead of walking back to the other end, they either rolled or did cartwheels, depending on their ability. At the end, they tossed the kids in the foam pit and played for a few minutes. And then they asked if anybody had any prayer requests and they prayed. (I Love the the college is a Christian college. It is a nice environment. And Sam will be exposed to things like prayer somewhere besides home and church.)

The class was an hour long. It ran over a few minutes, but I'm definitely okay with that. We paid $100.00 and she will have 20 classes between now and December (twice a week.) I couldn't ask for a better value, and they definitely work with the kids and teach them a lot!

Side Note: I talked to a few of the other Moms, but it was so loud and crazy in there, and a lot of Moms were trying to do lessons with their younger kids while their older kids were in gym. Some of the Moms were just trying to keep their toddlers off the gym floor. And other Moms left to go work out, so it wasn't like a relaxed environment to talk in. Since everything is so fast paced, I kind of wonder if Sam will have the chance to make any friends in gym. (Maybe when we swim, because lots of kids swim afterward.) Next Friday though the group meeting is just a picnic and that is a group basically meant to meet new friends and do fun, relaxing things, so we sha'll see.

After class we went swimming and Samantha told me all about her class! It was neat for her to have something to tell me about that I didn't really know. (I could see her class, but I couldn't hear them because there were so many other groups doing other stations.) So she told me all about what some of the moves are called, and what parts she loved. She says she didn't hate any of the parts. She told me about her teachers and how she likes it better than dance because you do more than just songs. She told me about prayer time and how she learned like "Fifty-Million new things!" She said, "Mommy, you were right! We are learning a lot! And they are teaching up how to do flips just like you said! How did you know?"

I am so glad that we found this class for her. I think she will excel in it. And it nice for her to have it to look forward to twice a week, and also during the day. Kinda breaks things up a little. Going to finish up some Respiratory Business with Sam. Lungs in a bottle. :)