The last day of Little Gym is a performance to show what each child has learned. This display is called the “Big Show”. For this class’s show Mommy, Daddy, and Julia came to watch. Daddy had brought Emily to most of the classes and it was a good opportunity for me to measure where Emily was at the beginning of the class to now. When she first started the class it was the first time she was on her own in a group setting with having to listen to instruction. Emily has grown a lot in this class. She has tried a lot of new moves, been on new equipment, and practiced the art of taking turns and listening to instruction from the teachers. I appreciate that this is a lot of new things to be introduced in just a couple month class. Despite all the changes in the class Emily loved it and was very pleased to be able to show off her new stuff for us all.

The kids did their warm-up and listening activities and then broke down into two groups to demonstrated on their skills at the different stations. Emily loves running in a circle at the warm-up activities. For the floor exercises she did her own variation on the moves and freely edited out the moves she didn’t want to do. I think her favorite move is the “Ta-Da” that completes each routine. Next her group went to the balance beam. On the beam she continued to exercise her freedom to edit the routine, but thoroughly enjoyed the beam. She was able to do her favorite move which is the Arabesque. At home she will arabesque on any elevated surface and announce herself. Lastly they performed their routine on the uneven bars. As usual she preformed her own version and really didn’t try much of this apparatus.

The biggest hit of the evening was the award presentation where each child got to take center stage and receive their medal. All the children seemed to love the applause and showing off. It was such a joy to watch Emily engage in an activity that was her own and receive such pleasure from it.

Emily just finished her first semester of class at Little Gym. We all joined her for her last ‘showcase’ class. She was pretty shy to preform her skills in front of everyone and was very excited for us to be with her. From the beginning to the end of the semester, we saw Emily grow in confidence to try new things and just enjoy spending time with the parent that took her. Emily loved her teacher – Ms Asha. Her favorite station was the rings and seemed to enjoy the low balance beam a lot when accompanied by a parent.

We have enrolled Emily in another sememster of class and because she just had a birthday she is moving up to a new and more independant class. This new class does not have direct parent involment. It will be a lot of fun to watch her interact with older children and in a circumstance where she is required to listen and respond to instruction from the instructor.

Funny and slightly related to gym story – We tried to eat dinner together after class each week and one week we ate at the restaurant next to the gym. We ordered her a kids meal of mac & cheese and mandarin oranges. After that visit she decided that she loved to eat there and requested it every week going into class and leaving class. She is definitely her Mommy’s daughter.