Glad we went back the second time...

So after Tuesday's fiasco at Shaelyn's trial tumbling class, we decided to give it another go on Saturday. Michael and my mom had the brilliant idea of letting Shaelyn try the younger class first before going back into the toddler class. (The younger class age group: 10-18 months. The toddler class: 19 months to 2 1/2 years.) Brilliant idea! Even though Shaelyn's skill set is more in line with the older kids, a room full of noisy toddlers can be very intimidating. So we started out the day by attending the older babies' class. They were much quieter and less chaotic - most of them were just barely learning how to walk. Shaelyn was a little apprehensive when we first walked in, but warmed up to the class immediately. She was not interested in participating with the class on the floor; she just wanted to go climb on all the equipment! Fine by me - I just wanted her to get used to the room and feel happy and comfortable. And the instructors know that attention spans of little children is about non-existent, so they encourage you to let your child do whatever they are comfortable doing. And they incorporate "exploring time" into the class anyway, so at some point all the kids are climbing all over the equipment.

Then the toddler class started. It was amazing the change in volume from the babies to the toddlers. The babies couldn't talk, and their parents didn't do much talking with them, so the class was relatively quiet except for the instructor and the music. But the toddlers were LOUD - they were talking, and so were their parents. Now I know why Shaelyn was so intimidated on Tuesday. But this time she was used to the room and the structure, and she just fit right in. This time she stayed on the floor during the group warm-up and activity, and even participated in the skills. She did a front roll, a wheelbarrow (where we held her feet and she walked around on her hands), and a helicopter (where you put her tummy on the top of your head and spin around with her arms and legs outstretched). The toddler class does a lot more running and jumping during the group activity, so she had a blast chasing the other kids around. And they got to play with scarves - Shaelyn's favorite! She got a pretty pink scarf and had fun wrapping it around her neck like a necklace while she ran in a circle with a HUGE smile on her face. This time she didn't actually go climb all over the equipment until it was actually explore time. But I think this is her favorite part.

During explore time, they also learn a new skill or two. This week they learned log rolling down the cheese mats. (You can hear the instructor talking about the log rolls in the video above.) Shaelyn loved these; I think they were her favorite. I love Michael log rolling with her down the cheese because Shaelyn took off his hat when they started and put it back on him when they got to the bottom.

So we enrolled her for the next 10 weeks and decided to go on Saturdays instead of Tuesdays so that Michael can come too. Hopefully she'll keep having as much fun as she did this time. This was how I thought she'd act the first time we went - so I'm glad we stuck with it and went again.