With apologies to my fellow David Bowie fans, of course!
There comes a time in every parent’s life when they are faced with making choices: breastfeeding/ bottle-feeding; cloth-diapers/paper diapers; pre-made purees/ whole foods; homeschool/ away school. But none is as big as the one we are facing now…
What activities should we put the kids in??? (Dun-Dun-DAH!)
Of course, I am trying to be funny, but it really is a tough decision. We don’t want to force anything upon them, and at the same time we want them to have fun. The Bear (the 5 year old) is a water girl. (She happens to be a Cancer as well… a water sign.) If there is water, she wants to be in and around it. Swim has been a great fit for her. We’d like The Dragonfly (almost 3 years) to also take swim lessons (to learn to swim) but for some reason, we don’t really see her as a swimmer…
The Dragonfly is surely a rhythm girl. She likes to move and dance and sing. In short, she’s her mother’s daughter… and a ham.
So in talking with DH, we are thinking that The Dragonfly could benefit from dance lessons, but which ones?
Right now, we are leaning toward two possible courses of action: Ballet/Tap or Irish Dance. Both have their pros and cons, which doesn’t make the decision making any easier. Ballet evokes images of graceful ballerinas en pointe, floating across the stage.
Tap is such a happy style, tell me the sound of tap shoes doesn’t make you smile a bit!
And there is just something about Irish Dance… the wigs, the costumes, the immobile upper torsos and flying lower torsos!
We’d like her to be able to choose/ have a voice in the matter, so I’m thinking of finding You Tube Videos of kids dancing and showing them to her to see what she likes the best. Most of the dance schools allow a limited trial period, for you to check out the classes with out committing… much.
Who knows what we will end up with, as long as she is happy!
_______________________________________________________________
How do you choose activities in your house?
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3
Image 4
Good question. I tend to sign my kids up for too many classes. My husband thinks they don’t need any classes at all yet. So of course I end up doing all the scheduling and driving around. I tend to stick to classes that I know they will like. My 3 year old son loves swimming (a pisces, who was born in the water) and my almost 5 year old daughter enjoys ballet. My daughter also had her first soccer practice yesterday and seems to love it. I see how each session for each class goes. If I pay for it, I generally like for them to finish. If they don’t like it, we just don’t sign up for another session.
We surely will have the guideline of: “If you start it, you will finish it.” I know it sounds harsh, but that’s something that we want to help them learn (perseverance.)
It is a dilema, isn’t it… My niece used to do Irish dancing, it was adorable watching the littles dancing and really cool watching the older girls. My SIL had to take her out though because the costumes/wigs started to get so expensive. My niece was very disappointed so you might want to keep long term cost in mind in case The Bear falls in love with it!
That is a concern… I know that once you get to the competition level, it could get costly. But I guess the same could be said for any activity, right?
It’s always fun to watch their interests grow! Showing her the YouTube clips is a great idea, and if you can see something live–even just sit in on a class or catch a mini-demonstration at the library or community center, that can make all the difference. It was seeing the Nutcracker with me that got the Maiden interested in dance (ballet) in the first place (she was 3), and a summer class that included tap sparked her interest in adding tap as well.
One thing we’ve learned not to do is underestimate her, either. We were sure that given her build, slight lack of ballet-style grace, and huge energy reserves, she’d be a shoe-in for soccer and sports. She tried baseball and begged to quit (I made her stick out the season). Then soccer, with similar results. Even gymnastics she enjoyed, but it wasn’t her thing. Meanwhile she’s kept on with the dancing and has actually gotten much more graceful and even more keen on it, something which has surprised me as I’d never, never pegged her as the ballerina type.
So much fun to watch them grow up