Unless you have a child under the age of 5 or associate with kids under the age of 5, you may not have heard of the Little Gym. The Little Gym is a franchise, and, according to its web site attempts the following: "Motor skill development made fun builds confidence that leads to a lifetime of success." This sounds a little hokey to me. Really I was just looking for a place to meet other moms and for Grace to play with kids her age. We signed up for the "fall semester" and Grace is in the "birds class." (Not to be confused with the older "beasts" class-they're really scary!) Our teacher is a real sweetheart even if she does look slightly hung over on Monday mornings. Grace doesn't spontaneously go to many people but she loves this woman and seeks her out for hugs. This impresses me.
The first part of the class is organized activity. Yup--organized activity for a bunch of 12-18 month olds. This strikes me as ludicrous! We do "warm up" exercise that include walking, running, and "dipsy dos" where you flip the kid over your head. They play this annoying music narrated by a guy with a slight South African accent asking you to do unreasonable things with your toddler, like "freeze." A toddler should stop what they're doing just because this South African dude said freeze? I don't think so.
Little did I realize I would get a workout too! And it is a major workout because I spend the first part of the class chasing Grace to bring her back to the group activity. Grace hates to do anything for more than 30 seconds so there's usually some screams. Most of the other kids are heading off in other directions too but one kid (she really irks me) always sits still, listens, and does exactly what the teacher says. She always looks impeccable, never has any crusty food left on her face, no slobber on her clothes, wears barrettes, and smiles constantly. But she doesn't walk great so this probably explains her sedentary ways. Grace is usually off somewhere trailing a slightly older kid who is attempting to remove the plastic electrical socket covers.
The allure of the Little Gym is that they have a mini-gymnastics facility complete with balance beams, hanging bars, big fluffy mats, and sorts of things they can climb. This is why we go. It's awesome to watch Grace go nuts and explore every nook and cranny. This is theoretically when I have time to talk to other parents but they're kind of goofy. There's a very sad pregnant mom who explained she was expecting their third girl in December (she let me know this with a big sigh as she sadly looked away). Another mom is neurotic about her kid not walking as well as everyone else. One mom is on speed and keeps up with her kid every step of the way. Another little kid has a different person with them every time. This person inevitably looks like they're going to kill whoever it was that signed them up for this.
By the end of the "class" we're both positively exhausted. I'm not one of those parents who feels that their kid needs a class to build self confidence but Grace has become braver in her climbing adventures. Eventually these classes evolve into gymnastics classes for the bigger kids but I doubt we'll stick it out til then. We're not big gymnastics fans (sorry if we offend). In the meantime, I like taking Grace to the Gym and watching her putter here, there, and everywhere.
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