I have always known it was nice, but didn't quite appreciate how nice it really was until we had to enroll Molly in a night class this fall. See, she's got this darn thing called Kindergarten that keeps getting in the way.
Molly's been taking dance since she was 3. She's by no means a prodigy, and she's not in competition or anything, just a simple dance class and recital at the end of the school year. This year, when we went from a morning class to a night one, my eyes were opened.
Her day class was taught by the owner of the school and had eight girls. Her nighttime class has more than double that amount of tiny dancers. The parking lot is always filled, and I can't just have the ear of the owner any time I want before or after class. It's definitely a different experience.
The one advantage to a night class is that I scheduled Molly to be in the same class as my friend Terah's daughter Melese. This worked out perfectly so that Terah and I can hang out together while the girls dance. I have to admit that part is a vast improvement over the different ways I used to have to attempt to occupy Charlotte for 50 minutes in the middle of the day.
Did you know you can just go into Petsmart and wander around for 40 minutes looking at the fish, cats, dogs, birds and hamsters? I drew the line at watching mice, though, because although she loved watching them, they totally creep me out.
We got to see the class firsthand when the class had a parent visiting day last week. The teacher does her best and does have an aide, but it's just not the same as only having eight girls. Gaining the constant attention of 16 girls aged 5-6 is a task equal to shoveling your driveway in a blizzard. In other words, impossible and frustrating. Also the same way I feel about trying to keep my children healthy in the dead of winter. (BTW, have I mentioned we've been dealing with sick germs for the past couple weeks? It's on the brain!)
But, despite my reservations about the size of the class, it was awfully cute to see the little girls dancing around to songs from The Lion King. (That's their recital performance. Yup, they are going to be super cute little lions.) And, Molly loves it, so I guess that makes the big class and crowded parking lots worth it.
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| Tap dancing. |
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| Conspiring with Melese. |
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| Tap moves. |
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| Getting specialized help with her tap moves. |
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| Check out all those girls. And, yes, I know she's the only one without jazz shoes. I was holding out buying them until closer to the recital so she doesn't grow out of them by then. Don't judge me. |
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| Being goofy! |
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| Friends!!! |
In direct contrast to Molly's dance class, we have Charlotte's gymnastics class. My neighbor Sarah and I both bought Groupons for a gymnastics class. We wanted to have Ella and Charlotte in class together so we could chat during class. (Clearly I'd learned something from how well it worked with Terah.)
Turns out, because it is at 10:30 on Tuesday morning, their class only has four kids in it. Four kids. I love it! And, that's a good thing, too, because Charlotte refuses, absolutely refuses, to participate unless Ella is there. Ella has been late before, and Charlotte will not go out there without her. It helps to only have four kids so her teacher can be understanding about Charlotte's peculiarity. When she is participating, Charlotte's actually really good and loves it. She's done somersaults and bear walks and walks on the balance beam. She just needs her security blanket (AKA Ella) to do it.
Oh, Charlotte, your stubbornness will, I'm sure, be my undoing. And, Ella, apparently you will be going to everything from now to college with my daughter. I hope you're ok with that.
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| Charlotte and Ella after gymnastics. |
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