Bella Toki: The Little Gym

I’ve been procrastinating writing this post because I feel like I need to put a ton of pictures up in order to give you a visual idea of what Owen’s gym class is like. Making pictures look good on the blog is kind of hard. But here goes nothing.

Owen is LOVING The Little Gym. I’m so glad we decided to enroll him and my only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner. But it seems to be the perfect blend of play and structure for him.

The “structure” is really suggested structure. The instruction is to let your child roam and do whatever he/she wants to do and when they decide to join the group activities – really praise them for it. Otherwise, don’t worry if they are running like a banshee through the gym during group activities.

The first few weeks, Owen never joined group. But he always watched with interest. Lately, he has been joining more and more. Each week, he joins in a little bit more. This particular week, he joined the morning group activity (sticks) for the first time ever.

One of his favorite parts is putting things away, which I think is a major step in the “structure” arena since putting fun toys away was really hard for him in the beginning. Now he knows, when he puts the “shakers” away, it means it’s time to run around. When he puts the “balls” away, it means it’s time for bubbles. When he sits down and sings the goodbye song, it means it’s time for stamps on your hands and feet. He’s really grasping the transition piece of the class and the fact that the last 15 minutes of class are always the same activities, it gives him some expectations and anticipation as to what is going to come next.

Another first today, Owen was the class demonstrator for last week's "skill of the week." It was backward rolls and Owen had been practicing at home. He normally tries to stay fairly far away from the teacher (Miss Shannon) because I think he's worried she is going to make him do something he doesn't want to do. However, this week - he was playing on the ramp when she came over and asked if he wanted to do the roll. He let her spot him and he did it perfectly - including putting his hands in the right position by his head which shocked Miss Shannon. He was SO proud of himself and while I was behind the kids shooting pictures - he finished his roll and stood up to applause and immediately searched the room for me. He was saying, "Mama? Mama?" I said, "Good job, Bubba!" and when he saw that I had seen his big stunt, he beamed and immediately sat down with Miss Shannon to do it again. My heart just swelled seeing how the first thing he thought of after his big proud moment was me and making sure I saw it. Usually, I feel like I'm his puppeteer and he can't wait until I just leave him alone.

Finally, I always talk about how tall Owen is. Here is a fairly good visual of what I’m talking about. Owen’s class is for kids 19 months to 2 ½ years old. I swear he's not in the wrong class!