Summer Gymnastics

For anyone who is around Clayton often, you know that he is a ball of energy. He is constantly on the go: climbing, running, dancing, etc. He's extremely inquisitive, likes to figure out how things work, and enjoys entertaining other people. I heard from a friend about the Little Gym and decided that it would be a perfect outlet to release some of Clay's energy. At the moment, he is in the "bird" group with kids ranging from 10 to 19 months. So far, he has learned how to forward roll, donkey kick, follow one step directions (this is sporadic), and can almost hang from the parallel bars. It has been such fun watching him interact with the other children (it is mostly parallel play) and entertain the adults in the room. Today, I signed him up for a class in the fall. He will be joining the "beast" group which will have kids ranging from 19 months to 2.5 years. He will be a little young in this group, but his current instructor thinks that he is on the upper spectrum of the bird group and wouldn't get much out of another semester. His class in the fall will be on Saturdays which will make it possible for Chad to attend. Here are some pictures from his class today.

At the beginning of class we always start in a circle for a group activity. Here is Clayton picking his bell.

After group time, the kiddos spend time exploring the equipment. The instructor will stop the music periodically to teach a skill and then we are encouraged to try it with our little bird. Clayton's favorite free exploration activity is definitely climbing!

We did a few forward rolls on this cheese mat. Giving Mommy a cute, "fake" little smile. For some reason he loves to put his mouth on the bars - yuck!

He found these little yellow cones and spent a lot of his free time today stacking them. Other children would come by and take some to other areas of the room and he would collect them to stack again. It was pretty funny.

During our group time at the end of class, Clayton really enjoys the bubbles!