In December, Peter started talking about doing ballet. He'd run around, spin and jump crazy and frequently ask if he could do ballet. We aren't sure what sparked this interest, but he kept asking about it for over a month (which is like a year in kid time), so we looked into it. Peter's cousins did ballet last year, and there is a lady at church who teaches at the ballet school. I talked to her about it and she told me who to talk to. We didn't look into it too hard or talk about it too much because we were also looking into a job that would have taken us a few hours away from this area. So, I didn't want to get Peter excited about doing ballet and then not be able to do it. The job didn't work out, so I called the ballet school and got Peter signed up for a trial class.
We decided to do ballet for two main reasons. First (and biggest reason) was because Peter wanted to do it. Second, because boys get free tuition at this particular school. Free weekly activity...yes please. Other side reasons include- Peter is super social, so this gets him out around other people; he will learn some rhythm. He will learn how to listen and follow directions, and ideally he will be a little more coordinated.
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| Stretches |
He's been going for three weeks now. The first week, he was a little nervous because, "What if I don't know the other kids?" I told him he didn't know the other kids, but that we could go and meet them and then he would know them. We got there, learned some of the kids' names, and his teacher's name, and then he was totally fine. When he got out of class, I asked if he wanted to keep doing ballet and he said, "Yes!" I asked what he did in class and he replied, "I did frog jump. But I didn't do everything the teacher said." Haha, at least he was honest. The second week, he told me he did everything the teacher told him to do....improvement. Peter's class is an all boy class. There are about 8 little kids (age 3-5) in his class. Peter and one of the other boys started at the beginning of January, and I think the others have been going since last August (ish).
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| Shark stretches |
Peter's third week (this past week) was parent watch week, which meant I got to go into the room and watch Peter and the other kids, and get some pictures and little videos. The school does these watch weeks once every semester. All the other days, the kids go in and parents stay out. They have learned the kids do better when their parents aren't present.
So, this past week, I got to see what Peter actually is learning in class. It was lots of fun. We all sat in chairs along the mirror and the boys went along like normal. Ezra did awesome and he sat in my lap the whole class. (This was a miracle. He usually sits still maybe 5 minutes. Maybe he just liked watching Peter.) Class started with a bunch of different stretches. The teacher (Miss Becca) does a great job with the kids. She made the class fun and you can tell the kids like her and listen to her. After stretching, they practiced marching to the beat and marching for 8 counts. Then, they did quiet feet, frog jumps and leaps. Peter's favorite are the frog jumps.
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| Peter's face! Sooo happy. |
After those things, they played freeze dance for the last couple of minutes. Peter has some great moves!
Peter has fun going to ballet. The other kids are fun and he gets some energy out. His teacher says he's catching on quickly to the things she is teaching, so he'll catch up to the other kids soon I think.
I tried adding videos to this post, but I can't figure it out, so here's a link to watch them: https://goo.gl/photos/3EGLrVpEka2yHNYU8
