New activities

Thomas just turned three and suddenly I felt this heavy urge to put him in some organized classes. I had/have no desire to place him in the "mommy and me" type classes. You know the kind were mommy is 100 percent involved and your little one gets to stay safely by your side. Not that I am against the safely by your side aspect but I just really feel that Thomas is ready to learn that there are other people in this world that he needs to learn from.

With so much energy to expel I really focused on finding classes that involved constant movement. Thomas LOVED his first day at gymnastics!!! This is a real class taught by a professional gymnast. All the parents watch from out side the room behind a glass window. Yeah! Thomas tumbled, jumped, twisted, climbed and so much more. If you ask him what his favorite part was be prepared to sit and listen for a while.

He talks about climbing up the rope, swinging on it and jumping from it into a pile of foam blocks. Then he will go on and on about the trampoline. So much fun!!!

The following day started swim lessons. Don't even get me started on this one! I hated it...for him! In his class it was just him and one little girl. This little girl was the same age and had already been in eight other swim sessions. She was swimming with her face under the water and everything. His swim teacher (if you can call her that) was a young...very young (high school age) girl.

I think she had no idea that this was Thomas' first time in a pool with out a life vest. She placed the kids on a movable platform in the middle of the pool. A deep pool by the way. And then she proceeded to have the kids jump into her arms. Only when they would jump she would back away from them. Can you see the fear in my eyes yet? When she finally scooped Thomas up (I was on my feet and about to jump in, by the way) I could see the shock all over his sweet little face. Dirty trick if you ask me!

Soon Thomas got the idea and decided he had had enough of her tricks and managed to get out of the pool when they were working near the ledge. He put his hands on his hips and shook his head "no." It took me quite a while to convince him to get back in the water and I was fearing that this was not going to be pretty. The teacher was able to teach him to float on his back a couple times but then the session was over.

She ended their time by saying a special "good bye" to each child... First up was the little girl. The teacher opened her arms and the girl jumped in and with that the teacher swung her into the air and flew her around a couple times. Thomas was absolutely horrified with the way this was playing out! Next up was Thomas and when she opened up her arms for him to jump into them Thomas screamed in total fear! He HATES to be swung like that! Some how she got him down and gently cradled him in her arms as she swirled around.

Thomas and I have no desire to return to this class. But Pat thinks he needs to go back, that he needs to learn to swim and that he needs to go back to things that are hard and scary. Luckily I only paid for two classes. I am making Pat take him to the next class so he can see what I am talking about. Maybe the calm presence of his father will help the next swim class go better.

I also thought a dance class would be fun for Thomas. But that was disastrous as well. Needless to say after just a few minutes we were out the door and Thomas was asking where his soccer and football teams were. How he got that into his mind I am not sure, but I guess I am off to find him a soccer or foot ball team to join...