So Proud
Angie has attended classes at the local Gymboree since she was roughly 15 months. We actually started shortly after her bout with toxic synovitis that frightened both of us. Since Chas is a stay at home dad and because she has always had very strong, adverse reactions to crowds at church or temple, we decided it would be good to put her in a group of kids so she could adjust to being with others. Angie has loved it from the very beginning although I had to sit with her under the parachute the first few trips to the Play class.
Angie has always been fiercely independent. We tend to think that this is a good quality, although it does drive us crazy from time to time. Her independence has always shown itself in Gymboree. She makes up her own ways of playing with things and doesn't always do the activities in the way the teacher wants. Gymboree has generally utilized a Montessori kind of philosophy which encourages exploration and exposure to things, rather than strictly requiring the children to follow the teacher's instructions. Your kid doesn't want to do all the activities? Fine. Just let him/her observe and do as he/she wants so long as it isn't dangerous or disruptive.
We've had several teachers and only one seems to grit her teeth when she sees Angie coming (Angie was going through her terrible twos at the time, and it took me a while to figure out what was bothering her--she did not want to be late for class ever). I like Angie's independence, but I see in Court how teacher's and schools in this area view kids who do not sit quietly and obediently all the time. It makes me nervous for her getting lost in a public school. I wish we could afford a private school for her, but I don't think it is possible. I think Angie will do fine in public school, but I firmly believe that she would do better with the smaller class sizes found in private schools. ( I say that "aloud" with some dread because both grandmas were or are public school teachers and one grandpa was on the School Board.)
I'm okay with that philosophy, but Angie, being fiercely independent, has participated less in the structured activities of the large, multi-age Play class as she has grown older. She is better in Music, but it is a smaller class.
Gymboree rearranged their class schedule and so the two classes Angie attends were back to back on Wednesday nights immediately after work. We tried it once or twice and didn't eat dinner until 8:00 p.m. I was exhausted so we had to find something different.
We've never tried the Level 7 class, which is structured for her age group for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with my schedule. The current multi-age class is packed with kids and parents and has activities designed for a wide age group. Angie always seems a little lost in the crowd when it is full and rarely participates in the games, preferring to play with me or another child away from the rest. Or sometimes running laps around the others.
With the new summer schedule, a Level 7 class is held Friday nights right after work. We thought we would give it a try and tonight was the first night.
In short, it went phenomenally well.
We arrived early and as Angie and I went to the bathroom I explained how this was a special Gymboree class (which caught her attention right away) and that it was just like clown school so Angie would have to follow Miss Kelly's instructions. (Explanation: The first episode of Jojo's Circus has Jojo going to the first day of school. Jojo fails to follow the teacher's instructions, a pie throwing machine goes haywire, hilarity ensues and Jojo learns the importance of following instructions. Angie and I have been role playing that episode for ages so I thought she would get it.)
The first instruction was for Angie to find the shape with her name on it. She did it immediately, no hesitation. Then she proceeded to jump on the other kid's name/shapes, but hey, no one else was there yet so I wasn't worried. A little girl named Sophia appeared with her dad and Miss Kelly introduced her to Angie. Angie came running over to her, "OH Sophia!" and gave her a big hug. Sophia looked a bit confused and then hugged Angie. They played together quite a bit tonight.
The other kids arrived and class began with the kids finding their names and sitting on the shapes. I only needed to redirect Angie briefly to follow the instructions and she stopped playing and ran to her name.
She was brilliant. Sometimes she would show her displeasure with being told to go to her name by laying on the shape, looking at me and snoring "zzzzzhuh zzzzhuh zhuuh," or by turning her back on the game, but she didn't act out, and when the Teacher called her name for her turn at the game Angie jumped up to participate. Not once, but she would return to her name and go for a second turn most of the time. She even played a game on the air log. She hasn't touched the air log for at least a year in the big Play class.
The structure essentially followed this pattern: Find name/shape, introduction song, game, play while teacher sets up next game, find name/shape, game, play while teacher sets up next game, find name/shape, game, play while teacher sets up next game, repeat, bubbles, form train for snack time, teacher whisks kids to separate room away from the parents for 10 minutes for snacks, stories, etc at a little table and chairs. Then the parents had to come in the room to find the children who were hiding under the "tree house" (table).
Angie loved it. Miss Kelly had to physically move Angie a few times, but she was so gentle that Angie responded very well. Kelly also recognized that this was Angie's first time in class so she didn't know all the ways of doing things (such as forming the train by placing your hands on the shoulders of the child in front of you) so she showed her gently.
Angie loved it. How do we know? She went on and on about going in the room with the Teacher and the other kids and that grapes and sunshine make raisins and that they hid in a tree house but Mommy found her ( That was Angie's favorite part).
Angie was so proud of the box of raisins that she received for her snack that she offered me one when I "found" her. (For the record, I hate raisins. With a passion. I've never liked them. [I do like them in some baked goods like cinnamon raisin bagels or my MIL's molasses gems.] The whole line about them just being dried grapes never worked on me. If that is the case, please just give me the grapes.) I figured that if Angie liked the raisins, I should encourage her so I took the proffered raisin popped that disgusting treat in my mouth and tried to look positive whilst I forced myself to swallow. Following my example, Angie put a raisin in her mouth, made a face, said "Yucky" and promptly spit it into my hand. Later, Kelly told me that Angie told her that she didn't like raisins.
I was thrilled: I was so afraid she would rebel against the structure that I held my breath for much of the class. I hovered close to Angie for much of the class because I was trying to keep her focused on following instructions. As Angie gets more comfortable with the class order, I won't hang so close to her. Probably.
Kelly said that she thought Angie did really well tonight. She was very enthusiastic. Kelly believes that Angie needed the structure. I think that the structure was part of it, but I think it helped that the class was so much smaller than her previous Play class. She'll start a drop off summer camp at Gymboree in two weeks (three hours of Music and Art every Wednesday for six weeks) and I am optimistic that they will go well.
I'm really pleased. Chas is happy. More importantly, Angie truly enjoyed herself.
Angie has always been fiercely independent. We tend to think that this is a good quality, although it does drive us crazy from time to time. Her independence has always shown itself in Gymboree. She makes up her own ways of playing with things and doesn't always do the activities in the way the teacher wants. Gymboree has generally utilized a Montessori kind of philosophy which encourages exploration and exposure to things, rather than strictly requiring the children to follow the teacher's instructions. Your kid doesn't want to do all the activities? Fine. Just let him/her observe and do as he/she wants so long as it isn't dangerous or disruptive.
We've had several teachers and only one seems to grit her teeth when she sees Angie coming (Angie was going through her terrible twos at the time, and it took me a while to figure out what was bothering her--she did not want to be late for class ever). I like Angie's independence, but I see in Court how teacher's and schools in this area view kids who do not sit quietly and obediently all the time. It makes me nervous for her getting lost in a public school. I wish we could afford a private school for her, but I don't think it is possible. I think Angie will do fine in public school, but I firmly believe that she would do better with the smaller class sizes found in private schools. ( I say that "aloud" with some dread because both grandmas were or are public school teachers and one grandpa was on the School Board.)
I'm okay with that philosophy, but Angie, being fiercely independent, has participated less in the structured activities of the large, multi-age Play class as she has grown older. She is better in Music, but it is a smaller class.
Gymboree rearranged their class schedule and so the two classes Angie attends were back to back on Wednesday nights immediately after work. We tried it once or twice and didn't eat dinner until 8:00 p.m. I was exhausted so we had to find something different.
We've never tried the Level 7 class, which is structured for her age group for a variety of reasons, mostly to do with my schedule. The current multi-age class is packed with kids and parents and has activities designed for a wide age group. Angie always seems a little lost in the crowd when it is full and rarely participates in the games, preferring to play with me or another child away from the rest. Or sometimes running laps around the others.
With the new summer schedule, a Level 7 class is held Friday nights right after work. We thought we would give it a try and tonight was the first night.
In short, it went phenomenally well.
We arrived early and as Angie and I went to the bathroom I explained how this was a special Gymboree class (which caught her attention right away) and that it was just like clown school so Angie would have to follow Miss Kelly's instructions. (Explanation: The first episode of Jojo's Circus has Jojo going to the first day of school. Jojo fails to follow the teacher's instructions, a pie throwing machine goes haywire, hilarity ensues and Jojo learns the importance of following instructions. Angie and I have been role playing that episode for ages so I thought she would get it.)
The first instruction was for Angie to find the shape with her name on it. She did it immediately, no hesitation. Then she proceeded to jump on the other kid's name/shapes, but hey, no one else was there yet so I wasn't worried. A little girl named Sophia appeared with her dad and Miss Kelly introduced her to Angie. Angie came running over to her, "OH Sophia!" and gave her a big hug. Sophia looked a bit confused and then hugged Angie. They played together quite a bit tonight.
The other kids arrived and class began with the kids finding their names and sitting on the shapes. I only needed to redirect Angie briefly to follow the instructions and she stopped playing and ran to her name.
She was brilliant. Sometimes she would show her displeasure with being told to go to her name by laying on the shape, looking at me and snoring "zzzzzhuh zzzzhuh zhuuh," or by turning her back on the game, but she didn't act out, and when the Teacher called her name for her turn at the game Angie jumped up to participate. Not once, but she would return to her name and go for a second turn most of the time. She even played a game on the air log. She hasn't touched the air log for at least a year in the big Play class.
The structure essentially followed this pattern: Find name/shape, introduction song, game, play while teacher sets up next game, find name/shape, game, play while teacher sets up next game, find name/shape, game, play while teacher sets up next game, repeat, bubbles, form train for snack time, teacher whisks kids to separate room away from the parents for 10 minutes for snacks, stories, etc at a little table and chairs. Then the parents had to come in the room to find the children who were hiding under the "tree house" (table).
Angie loved it. Miss Kelly had to physically move Angie a few times, but she was so gentle that Angie responded very well. Kelly also recognized that this was Angie's first time in class so she didn't know all the ways of doing things (such as forming the train by placing your hands on the shoulders of the child in front of you) so she showed her gently.
Angie loved it. How do we know? She went on and on about going in the room with the Teacher and the other kids and that grapes and sunshine make raisins and that they hid in a tree house but Mommy found her ( That was Angie's favorite part).
Angie was so proud of the box of raisins that she received for her snack that she offered me one when I "found" her. (For the record, I hate raisins. With a passion. I've never liked them. [I do like them in some baked goods like cinnamon raisin bagels or my MIL's molasses gems.] The whole line about them just being dried grapes never worked on me. If that is the case, please just give me the grapes.) I figured that if Angie liked the raisins, I should encourage her so I took the proffered raisin popped that disgusting treat in my mouth and tried to look positive whilst I forced myself to swallow. Following my example, Angie put a raisin in her mouth, made a face, said "Yucky" and promptly spit it into my hand. Later, Kelly told me that Angie told her that she didn't like raisins.
I was thrilled: I was so afraid she would rebel against the structure that I held my breath for much of the class. I hovered close to Angie for much of the class because I was trying to keep her focused on following instructions. As Angie gets more comfortable with the class order, I won't hang so close to her. Probably.
Kelly said that she thought Angie did really well tonight. She was very enthusiastic. Kelly believes that Angie needed the structure. I think that the structure was part of it, but I think it helped that the class was so much smaller than her previous Play class. She'll start a drop off summer camp at Gymboree in two weeks (three hours of Music and Art every Wednesday for six weeks) and I am optimistic that they will go well.
I'm really pleased. Chas is happy. More importantly, Angie truly enjoyed herself.
posted by Mommy Monster @ 8:53 PM
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