aka the last of her gymnastics class
We tried out the gymnastics class (4 weeks) over the summer and it was a hit. She liked ballet, but I think she enjoyed gymnastics even more.
Now, if you know, Melody is not a daredevil. She is a typical cautious firstborn child. I’m pretty sure we made her that way, as first-time parents usually do. I love that this class helped her to be more confident in her gross motor skills (aka “whole body movements” for those of you who didn’t study child development). In her ballet class, she would not do the tumble for anything. Within 2 gymnastics class, Melody didn’t mind doing the tumbled forwards and backwards on a sloping mat! She was terrified to do the candlestick on the rings during the class, but she did it during the show. I was so proud of her because I knew she was still scared, but wanted to do it for everyone to see. This class was for 3-4yo, so she will be moving up to the next class for 4-5yo, and it will be 40 minutes long instead of 20 minutes. The teachers are great too.
Are you kids involved in sports or other activities? How did you figure out what to try first (and how old were they), and how long to keep going if they weren’t really into it, but you didn’t want them to give up?
Stretching
They had little arrows on the floor pointing to the next thing they kids had to do, like a obstacle course.
Low beam
Rings
Hooray!
Hand stamped
Certificate
Her class (minus another girl and a boy) = representin’ all the Asians!
Keeping up with the Moys 
Yay great job, Melody!! I always wanted to do gymnastics (but was too scared and shy early on and too involved with other stuff later on). I think it’s awesome that she’s getting the opportunity. 🙂
Go Melody!!! I think she’s so adorable! I was just telling Josh that I wanted to get Jacob into some sort of gymnastics class because he loves tumbling. Oh, and I just read your email…I will reply! 🙂
Pingback: Our Week in Photos (Week 50 of 52) | Keeping up with the Moys
What fun! Great job, Melody!
Activities: We started J out with soccer when she was an old 3… primarily because we lived in a small town and it was one of the few choices that we didn’t have to drive out of town for, and it was only $30 for the season. Her first season she enjoyed it, but she was kind of a flower picker. but she said she wanted to play again. Her 2nd season she broke out and did fantastic. She has played ever since (missing 1 season last fall because I missed sign-ups as they weren’t advertised, however God knew what he was doing because that’s also when we adopted her brother. So it worked out for the best). Even after moving to a new town, she has continued with the soccer. She also started piano when she was 3 and a half and did that until we moved. Then she decided she would rather try violin, which she started at 5 and a half. (Her violin teacher here also teaches piano, so should she decide that she wants to switch back we won’t have to switch teachers). We just can’t afford both. J did a season of Upward cheer leading last year, and this year she decided to try Upward basketball instead. And let me tell ya, I was excited that she chose it to try something new, but have been hesitant going into it as she has never been very athletically inclined in the area of hand coordination. No exaggeration, our 1 year old throws better. And right now she is not exactly very strong at the sport at all, to put it nicely. But by her enthusiasm you would think she was great lol. She does have the determination to improve. I really hope she does. But if she does end up doing well at basketball it will be by the grace of God and because she really worked at it… that is not her natural talent. Basically as far as deciding what to do, we just give her some options and let her choose. (Except for the violin… she had been asking about that on her own. I’m thinking she must have seen something on PBS or something that sparked her interest because we never proposed that one to her). As far as when to stop, well although we have gone through patches where she was frustrated, she just hasn’t every expressed interest in quitting. so I’m not sure how we would handle that with something that didn’t run on a seasonal schedule. With athletics I would probably make her stick it out til the end since we follow through with commitments and they usually run 2 months tops.