Gymnastics & Soccer

Our weekly gymnastics class has been our "summer school" this year. This is Austin's second summer and Ruthie's first. I was lucky that they had a 4-yr-old class at the same time and in the same room as the 2-yr-old mom-and-me class. Gymnastics is a great toddler sport - you get to move a lot, practice being in a class, practice following instruction and practice basic movement skills that help in all other sports.

Today was our last class for the summer. Austin has enjoyed it tons and wants to do it again, but there aren't any boys in the next classes so we'll be looking for soccer and basketball next summer. (I think boys pick it up again when they get those Iron-Cross muscles as teenagers).

Ruthie received many compliments from her teacher and other moms in the class on how well she followed instruction and on how strong she was. Her teacher commented a few times that Ruthie could do moves that she'd seen only 1 or 2 other 2-yr-olds do. Being uber prego, it was extra nice that she could remember and do the routines without much help from me (or having to be chased and coerced back to the mat).

Austin also participated in Itty-Bitty Soccer class this month. It's a 2-week 6-session class for 3 & 4 yr olds. I was impressed at how much he actually learned in the class! He came away with a basic understanding of soccer and skills such as shooting, dribbling, trapping, goal-keeping and (his favorite) running. He even learned all those soccer terms. When the kids played little scrimmages, only about 1/3 of the kids seemed to recognize the point of the game and Austin was right there in the ball-kicking mix. The two weeks was a perfect amount for his attention span too. I wish 5-yr-olds could sign up so we could do the basketball session. Hopefully he'll enjoy a longer sport next year.