Before his first class he was very excited to jump on a trampoline. Once he entered the gym (sans mommy) he became very tentative. He stood and watched as the other children do warm-up stretches. After several minutes the teacher tried and get him to join in with the group and he lost it. He started screaming for mommy. I saw the whole situation as I was sitting in the mezzanine above the gym. He continued to cry and refuse to participate for the next 10 minutes. If the teacher even looked at him he started wailing again. Finally they called me (and Nora :) down to assist. I got him to calm down and we rejoined the group and I sat with him while he was in line. He finally started doing the activities (balance beam, trampoline, etc). On the bright side it was great to see that he could do all of the activities quite proficiently. After trailing him for 20 minutes I slipped away and he did well for the remaining class period.
After class he ran to me excitedly and said he had lots of fun...we'll see if he remembers the fun next week. And I learned a lesson...drop Nora off with Daddy until I'm confident Sawyer can handle it on his own :)
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| excited for his 1st class, this is before he actually started :) |
When we arrived the 2nd week I decided to follow Sawyer's lead. When we reached the gym door he asked me to help him so I walked him down to his class and found his carpet square. As I was walking away he was on the verge of losing it so I stayed with him through warm-up and encouraged him to participate without pushing too hard. As the class split up to different activities I told Sawyer I had to go but I would be back soon. He let me go and proceeded to his activities. He did the uneven bars, rings, shuttle race etc. He listened well, waited his turn and performed all the tasks with no tears! I would call that a success!
Once I'm more confident and he is more comfortable I'll try to get some action pictures.
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