Nature Of The Beast - The Little Gym

Up to now, I have never done any Mommy & Me classes with Owen. Probably for a couple reasons: my work schedule is tough to work around scheduled play groups and my friends all have children close in age to Owen and we get together regularly enough that he is exposed to other kids. However, now that Owen is walking and talking he is definitely craving that peer interaction and my friends and I don’t get together regularly enough to fulfill his needs. Also, the closest “friend” of his is 6 months older than him and even though that sounds like a small distance, when they are this little it’s actually quite dramatic. So, to try and find some playmates for Owen and to provide him with an introduction to structured activities, I felt like now was the time to look for an organized playgroup for Owen.

We went to two trial classes at two different organizations. The first one was at My Gym. The class was for 23 month to 2 ½ year old kids. I had high hopes that he would enjoy himself with realistic expectations that some of the organized activities might be challenging for him since he’s never done anything structured before. Well, the class was more than challenging for Owen – it was borderline torturous. 60 minute class – 45 minutes of Owen in a full blown tantrum. He did great during free play which is how the class started, but then they did circle time (Owen hated it and wanted to keep playing,) followed by more free time where they pulled different fun toys out to play with for about 10 minutes and then put them away. Each time they put something away, Owen got really mad. After the toys, they brought out swings which are Owen’s favorite – then they put them away. Mad. Then they brought out a zip line toy where the kids were pushed by the teacher in a little airplane seat across the gym. Each kid got a turn and then it was put away. Really Mad. So mad in fact, that the next things the teachers brought out were a big tote of musical instruments and a bunch of ride on toys. Owen was screaming about the zip line and walked over to the teacher who tried to pass out the instruments to the kids and grabbed each instrument out of her hand and threw them back into the tote. He finished his tantrum by taking a big ride on toy over his head (WWF style) and threw that in the tote too for good measure. If he wasn’t going to get what he wanted – nobody was!

So I left there pretty dejected. I nearly cancelled our trial at the 2nd place the following week but I called the teacher first to talk it through with her. She expressed some concern at the idea of having so many temporary toys for 2 year olds and said that in their program they only do that at the very end of class with plastic balls followed immediately by a bubble machine. I decided to suck it up and try again.

The Little Gym was 195% better! Their program is for 19 month to 2 ½ year olds (Owen is officially a Beast!) so Owen was in the middle of the pack age-wise. They organize it so much better with actual instruction to the parents around letting their children roam free instead of forcing them into participation. Owen complained the first day but never really cried. He didn’t like circle time and stayed on the outside but so did every single other child. He did great during free time – did great during the balls – got a little sad when the balls were put away but the bubble machine was a great consolation prize. After the bubbles is the saddest part because that’s when class is over, but the kids get a special stamp on their hands and feet on their way out.

So the first class: Owen did a lot of complaining during circle time and anytime a teacher came near him during free play. He did not want to put the balls away and tried to run away with his when I took it from him. When class was over, I had to drag him out of the gym because he did NOT want to leave – he had no idea what stamps were and did not care.

The second week: Owen complained slightly during circle time, but dramatically less than the first week. He loved when teachers came to him and actually knew how to do the “skill of the week” (somersaults) on his own without help so he was the class example. He was so excited about the bubbles, he helped put away all the balls. During final circle time, he was off doing his own thing and Steve and I were participating in the group when we heard all the moms let out this “Awwwwwww!” We looked over and Owen was holding hands with a little boy named, Huck. Huck was leading him all around the gym by the hand going to all the apparatuses. They got to the rings and Owen tried to lift Huck up by the middle to reach the rings. It was adorable. He was still sad when class was over, but he was also ready to get stamped so we were able to leave easier. I can’t wait to see what improvements are in store for us next week!

I haven’t brought a camera to class yet because I’ve been unsure of how he would do, but after the Huck hand holding, I need to do it. Hopefully I’ll have pictures of class soon.