OurLittleFamily: Winter/Spring Dance Classes

In mid-January, the girls resumed their dance classes for the winter/spring semester. Hailey was signed up for another 8-week session of toddler jazz/tap/tumbling. The fall session went well and she had a blast, and I didn't find it too taxing on my schedule to take her out for an afternoon dance class after already having brought Savannah back and forth to her morning dance class, so we signed her up again. In the fall there were only four little ones in her class, including her. For this spring session there are seven little ones. The spring session has not been going so smoothly. :/ There is one little girl in the class who is completely unable to function in a group setting; she runs wild, knocks other children down, and distracts the entire class. It seems that the teacher's energy goes entirely into trying to get this one girl to participate, and it is to the detriment of the rest of the class. (And yes, the parents are in the room the whole time. This little girl's aunt brings her and just sits on the side watching and doesn't intervene). This past week another teacher was brought in to help, and her whole job was basically to try and keep this one little girl under control. Matt and I have both had turns bringing Hailey in and both of us have been really disappointed in how this session has gone. We feel like we are just wasting our money, and Matt was very upset one week when Hailey got knocked down by the aforementioned wild child.

Anyway, this session goes until the end of March. After that we could sign her up for another 8-week session (April/May) but we have decided not to. We are going to wait until summer, when she is three and can take classes with Savannah's teacher of several years, Ms. Cathy. We have more confidence in Ms. Cathy's ability to run a classroom well regardless of what sorts of challenging personalities are in the class. ;) Also, with the weather warming up, we'd rather not spend every single Saturday running back and forth to dance classes. We would rather have more time to enjoy our day as a family. :) I will say, though, that Hailey has continued to do really well, when she is given the chance to actually dance. She has some pretty good tap skills for a two-year-old! I know she will be glad when summer rolls around and she can move into the "big girl classes" like her sister takes.

Sashays across the floor.

Stretching before tumbling.

She loves the balance beam.

She's getting pretty good at doing forward rolls on her own at home.

Such a peanut!

When it came time to sign Savannah up for the winter/spring session, she expressed to me that she would like to try tap. She has always loved ballet and she still loves it, but after seeing Hailey's class a few times and watching her sister practice in her tap shoes around the house, she thought it seemed like fun! She also still wanted to do ballet, too. There was a Saturday morning class that was a mix of ballet, tap, and jazz. As I've mentioned before, she doesn't like change and she was kind of nervous at the thought of trying a different type of class. However, I was really proud of her for being brave and deciding to go for it! And......she loves it!