So, Lily tried gymnastics last year through the City of Raleigh and absolutely loved it. It was mostly tumbling, but she still had a great time. We really only have time for one "extracurricular" activity, so in January, we decided to try dance instead of gymnastics and she liked it too - but not as much as gymnastics.
We talked about it all summer and every time we asked her if she'd rather do dance or gymnastics, her answer was the same - gymnastics! So, we knew which activity we were going to try this fall :) But, instead of doing it through the city this year, we thought we'd try going through a "real" gym, so she'd be exposed to everything - bars, floor, trampoline, foam pit - all of it. And she has absolutely loved every single minute of it - well, for the most part (I'll explain a little further down). She looks forward to going every week and asks about going every other non-gymnastics day.
Her class is for an hour every week and there are about 6 other little girls in her class. Everyone seems to get along really well - except for one (this is the explanation to the comment above). There's one little girl that seems to be a little bit of a bully, for lack of a better word. The first couple of classes Lily had, she would come running to me to tell me that the little girl had pinched her or pushed her or had "hurt her". I've also seen her push other kids out of the way at the water fountain and when in line to do their skills. So, after the second class in which this happened, Lily and I had a long talk about being nice to her even when she's not nice to Lily, not sitting next to her in class and letting the teacher know when something happened. Lily didn't have class last week, but this week when we went, it was much better and she pretty much just stayed away from the girl.
Now, I'm sure that this is not the first time Lily has encountered a not so nice kid, but this was the first time I've seen it firsthand - and I've gotta say, those protective instincts really kick in when this happens to your child! Richard and I talked about if we should switch her to a new class, but we both felt like it was important for her to learn to deal with this situation, especially in a safe place like gymnastics class.
Now, we did have a make up class at another time this week and I am thinking about switching her to that class - but not for that reason. It's kind of more of a selfish reason. Besides it being later in the day, which makes it easier for me not have to rush from work to get her, this class seemed to do a lot more and Lily enjoyed the entire class. She didn't once look for me or call out to me from across the gym, which is a huge change. Now for the selfish reason...the parents of the kids in this class are so much better! They're not catty or rude to the teacher (another story for another time..), they were friendly and normal - and since I have to deal with the parents while waiting for Lily's class, I'm thinking this would be a much better environment :). So, we may end up switching her anyway!
