My gym

So Matt and I audited a My Gym class with Charlotte yesterday.  Audit may not entirely be the right word as we still had to pay for it ($35 for a trial that is refundable if you sign up for the class plus $2 for the requisite socks for the parents that we did not know about.  The kids all get their hands and feet sanitized and can go barefoot).  Matt, generally against organized anything, was on par in his general distaste for this, but he gave it a shot (after some spirited coaxing from me).  What really set him over the edge were the 10 parents and 2 kids waiting for the class to begin (luckily only one parent per child in the actual class - which made for an unusually large peanut gallery but a bearable class experience).  Thankfully there were only about 7 kids - mostly Chinese and a couple of Muslim ones besides Charlotte.  There were 3 teachers - so a rather acceptable teacher to child ratio (though I think it goes up to 12 students).  The main teacher was Filipino and she spoke with a sing/song cadence of someone who has a lot of experience cajoling toddlers to do what they are told.  Speaking of singing - the class had singing and songs throughout.  This was good for us as we are definitely deficient in exposing Charlotte to age appropriate music - I mean, I don't want her to be the only kid who doesn't know the lyrics to the "wheels on the bus."  We all sat around in a big circle - reminiscent of my kindergarten days (though then, probably due to ease of application, we sat around in a big duct taped square).  This 'waddlers' class was for kids aged 8 - 18 months - which is a rather large age spectrum if Charlotte is any reference.  At the start of 8 months Charlotte was barely crawling and now she is sprinting.  Along with the singing there was a lot of swinging back and forth on my lap, 'reaching' for cookies and 'picking' apples (e.g .stretching).  Charlotte is a new 16 months old and I looked at her and often her face read "WTF?"  I was relieved that I was the parent during this early portion of the class because even though I was a bit taken aback by all the singing (and the other parents chiming in) I felt like I needed to 'fake it till I make it' because if I had a sour expression on my face I would have lost Charlotte altogether.  So I sang, I grabbed apples, I was the enthusiastic parent not to be outdone by other, more genuinely enthusiastic parents who maybe don't get the quality time with their kids as I luckily do with mine.  There is even a point where Charlotte was sitting on my lap and I had to roll backwards while holding on to her and then roll back forwards.  So here I am, with my comely British black socks on, holding on to Charlotte in one hand and my skirt in the other, trying desperately not to flash my fellow parents... good times, good times.

I asked Matt to switch roles (and socks) with me right when we got into the 'gym' part of the class.  This was sort of like a gymnastics class - with a balance beam, padded mats, and even parallel bars for the kids to play on.  Charlotte seemed like the most advanced kid there, walking on a beam on an incline with ease then doing this tuck and roll maneuver with ease (beaming Dad said the teacher was shocked that she knew to tuck her head - Matt taught her that that same morning).  There are ropes hanging from the center of the ceiling with D-rings at the end - the staff then placed plastic swings and a hammock so the kids could experience the sensation of swinging.  Charlotte was fine cavorting with another boy in the hammock but really wanted nothing to do with the Little Tikes swing.  I don't know why she doesn't like swinging but she has more or less been consistent about her dislike.

I was thinking that 45 minutes seemed like a short time but in actuality it is quite long for someone around Charlotte's age.  There was an exercise to quell 'separation anxiety' - all of the kids sat inside the circle (with some large Duplo/Lego looking toys) while the parents symbolically sat outside the circle.  Charlotte didn't do so well here as she was too excited by being so near to a plastic ball pit.  So one of the instructors had to keep her inside the circle.  She didn't want to be closer to daddy which was good - as I am sure that she knew he was right there, sitting outside the circle for her.

Finally the class drew to a close, there was more singing and dancing - something about how many bees are in the hive of a hand puppet.  I think we had lost Charlotte at this point
as she is a bit of a free thinker/doer and probably had tired of all this structured time.

So how was it?  It was ok - Charlotte was able to try some more athletic things but I think she gets enough of this sportiness by her once or twice daily visits to her local park - and that seems to tire her out enough so that she sleeps through her next nap/overnighter without too much orneriness.  I suppose if you were a kid without access to a park/condo facilities then this would be a nice way to exercise out your child while spending time with them in a structured way.  Even though the class was for 8-18 months I think Charlotte was a bit too advanced for it - I would much rather have put her in a class with a bunch of older kids (e.g. up to age 3) so that she could emulate sharing behavior and other good traits that hopefully this older cohort set has mastered.  Plus (not to sound too Tiger Mom) I was just sort of hoping for some slightly more intellectual stimulation, something along the lines of puzzles or building blocks instead of just creative exercise for the sake of energy expenditure.

So for now My Gym will not be our gym.  But we are still on the lookout for maybe something to round out Charlotte's idle time.