Swimming and dance

The kiddos continue to enjoy their swim classes, and continue to make progress. Sayer was assisted in swimming the length of the pool while being coached in side breathing. She doesn't quite have the concept yet of simply turning her face to breathe, and still pulls her head entirely up out of the water. But the other girl in her class is doing the same thing. She'll get it eventually. Duncan's progress is slower, but noticeable. He floats on his back, he'll float with his face in the water (briefly), he'll dunk, he'll go down to the bottom to retrieve objects (with help, as he can't propel himself down there yet). There are two other children in his class - one is a boy who is probably almost 4 and is a bit bigger/more coordinated/advanced. Not much more advanced, but some. The other is a little girl who is 2 who LOVES water. She'll throw herself into the pool and kick and thrash her way around. She does not like to lay on her back, but otherwise she's an awesome little swimmer. Her biggest problem is that she's only 2 and doesn't listen terribly well. Duncan is probably the least accomplished swimmer in his class, but he'll likely move up with the other boy soon while the girl stays behind because she's not yet ready to take (ie listen two and follow directions) instruction in more difficult strokes just yet.

I had a look at my calendar for MB events to see whether or not I could continue the swim lessons in May. I can :) So the kids will continue through May into the first week in June, I believe. Then I'll have to look again to see if we'll be in town or traveling over the summer months. But for now it's all good :)

In dance class this afternoon Sayer was the only student. She's normally one of two, but the other girl couldn't make it today. So we had the Sayer Show :) In the gymnastics portion of the class she jumped on the airtrack, then practiced skills on the balance beam (which had been raised 10 or so inches from it's 'normal' height). She had to jump to a front support on the beam, then throw a leg over it and sit straddling it, then support herself in a V with her toes pointing up to the ceiling while she leaned back slightly. The teacher showed her how to lay herself all the way down and move her arms to a different position to hold the beam and then pull her legs up into a 'candle,' too. :) Then she sat up and stood up and took kick steps (about waist high kicks, too!) to the end of the beam, where she did an arabesque (that's standing on one leg with the other outstretched behind you and leaning forward with arms out to the sides for those who don't know :) ) before jumping down to dismount. And after the beam work she went to the uneven bars to try to jump into a pose with her hands on the low bar with her feet in a V with toes touching the bar, then to whip her feet down and continue her forward momentum to swing down over a foam 'snake' on the mat for her dismount. She had one beautiful attempt where she did the jump and got her feet in the right places and got them down and dismounted ... and landed on her backside. I mentioned that one to the teacher when they came out of the gym to put on their dance shoes, because it was a beautiful attempt with a less-than-beautiful ending, and she said she was quite happy because Sayer had grasped the concept of the swing dismount. :) Then they were in the dance room doing shuffle ball change steps (or some such thing - there are about a zillion different steps in dance and I can't wrap my brain around all their names).

The dance/gymnastics/karate classes that the kids take at The Little Gym end in early June, when their winter/spring semester ends and the summer semester begins. Because of travel for MB I'm not signing them up for summer classes, but they'll go to three 'camps' over the summer. Camps at TLG are 3 hours long. I drop them off for fun in the gym, crafts and snack, and more free play in the gym. For 3 hours. Did I mention that? They'll attend three of those over the summer during the weeks that we're in town.