Another computer hiccup is delaying the posting of Florida pictures and pictures of Josie being 10 months.
But, I can tell you that I took Eddie to his first gymnastics class today and the teacher asked us to leave. I'm not kidding. It's the kind where the kids separate from the parents and it was geared for ages 3 and up (Eddie will be 3 in 3 weeks, so I thought I was okay). He refused to follow the teacher's instructions, wandered all over the gym, wanted to play with what he wanted to play with (which included the balls). She spent half the time chasing him around before calling me down (you watch in a balcony) to take him. Mind you, he didn't seem to mind that I'd left him in the class and was content running his own show.
She basically said that it wasn't working out and essentially he wasn't welcome in the class if he couldn't follow instruction.
Den and I are pretty traumatized. Mostly because he's almost 3 and people ask who his friends are and he doesn't really have any. The friends he has are the kids of our friends whom he sees sporadically. We don't do playgroups--ever. I've tried, but something always came up and it never seems to work. I've wanted to. He's never really taken any classes. He took one class in the fall of 2006, while he went to his one year of preschool. I always thought the classes were a waste and then when he was old enough to take them, we had Josie and a lot of classes have a 'no sibling' rule, so it makes it a little difficult.
As you may recall, I pulled him out of preschool (still feel that was a good decision) last fall and then signed him up for classes this spring (they had all started by mid fall). He is now in parent/child art, swim and now switched over to parent and child gymnastics class. Ugh. The last thing we want is an anit-social child, but while he interacts well one on one, he really has trouble in groups of large people. Den and I are trying not to freak, but here we thought we were doing so well in all aspects of his life and that one thing that everyone talks about: socialization, we have the cute bubbly kid who just wants his mommy, daddy, g'parents Ohio and Wisc. and Cookie. That is his world and that's it. He'll do okay in smaller groups of people and I'm fine that he might not ever like crowds, but I'd like him to at least be able to function in groups of people and certainly listen to instruction.
Thing is, he is perfectly capable, but doesn't want to. Really makes me call into question my heretofor attitude that if he didn't want to do something that was fine. No more. Not sure how to proceed on that one, but it seems like something has to change.
When we left the class, he didn't want to leave, so hopefully he'll like the parent child class and by the fall be ready to take the class he was just kicked out of.
Josie will be taking gymnastics or some class this fall at 18 months of age!
6 comments:
Ummm, if he's still short of the age requirement (three years old), why are you so upset that he's not able to behave as well as the other, older kids? I mean, I think he's a great kid, and suspect that he's got some mad skillz and all, but it's unlikely that he'll be above average in everything (Lake Wobegon not withstanding).
Of course, this is coming from the guy who isn't comfortable in crowds and is kinda antisocial, so maybe you oughta worry. :-)
Well, I guess it's not so much that I'm upset over being kicked out of the class, as much as it's kind of an illustration of what has been bugging/worrying Den and me for a while--that Eddie doesn't want to be around people --doesn't want people to come over, or go out to see people.
Kind of the gym class made me/us realize that we aren't immagining it. I know now after the instructor confided that the other kids had all been in the class before, that he was too young, but now I'm worried about preschool this fall and how he'll handle that. He's fine in small groups, or around people he knows and he doesn't even mind leaving us, but I guess it's been in the backs of our minds for a while.
Let me see, You have a bright, inquisitive kid in a new environment and he wants to look around and try some things he likes. Hmmmm. His problem or the teacher's? Parent and child sounds good, because he is going to be a handfull for any teacher.
G'Pa Ohio
Meg sent me the link to this post, since she knows that I think a lot about questions around preschool and the like. (And my kids are 4.5 and 1.5, so I'm right in the thick of it, too!) I agree with everyone that kids are ready for group classes at different ages -- and that, therefore, this particular incident is NOT indicative of anything Deep and Certain. I do wonder, though, if nursery school might not be an answer. I think that by two kids really need to start learning how to negotiate on their own a bit -- with other kids, with adults who aren't relatives, and the like -- for all kinds of reasons.
I'm coming at this from the other end, because my kids have both been in daycare since they were tiny and love it. The 18-month-old chants her best friend's name when we're leaving the house every morning, and the 4 and a half year old has managed to maintain friendships with friends she made when she was two, despite the fact that one now lives in Canada and the other now goes to a different school. And I think that it's important to learn to love and admire and be obedient to adults who aren't related to you....
Thanks, yeah, the preschool thing is a NIGHTMARE here. Everything happens in January and February for the following fall and I didn't realize this til Feb. 15 last year--only able to apply to one school at that point. He has had 1 year of preschool from 18 months to just over 2 and did great. It was a goofy school though and didn't work for us this year and I pulled him out after 6 weeks - we were all miserable(10-2 each day, plus you had to bring lunch and they made the kids take 1 hour naps--not good for a 3-hour napper).
I really had wanted him in preschool this fall, but there were no real openings at that point. So now, I've applied to three so far and have 3 more we'll be applying to. All the schools have lotteries and there is one where you stand in line and take your chances. My big fear is exactly how he'll do in preschool given this latest experience--assuming he gets in somewhere. He just doesn't seem to like to be around groups of other kids--exactly what preschool will be. I don't regret pulling him out of the other school because it was just awful, but I do worry about what will happen this fall when he is in preschool.
plus, it's all that what you learn by 3 and learned behaviors and experiences and all that--I worry that he's not had that group play experience and it's not become a way of life for him.
Elizabeth, Try Montessori. They are more patient than other preschools.
Linda
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