goodfountain

Chee started both of her summer classes this week. Monday we had Dramakinetics and today was Tumbling. They both started off the same, but ended quite differently.

At Dramakinetics, she would not go in the classroom. She was able to brace herself while grabbing the door frame and unless I wanted to be really physical with her, I couldn’t get us through the door. I try to avoid being overly physical with her. It’s never met with any measure of success.

We spent the whole hour in the hallway, watching the class through the windows. We discussed the kids in the room – how many boys, how many girls, the colors of their shirts, the teacher. She told me she didn’t want to go in because she didn’t like the kids. I asked if there there were too many kids. She said, No, there’s four.

Toward the end she started peeking in and just as the teacher said it was time to sing the good-bye song, in she went. And said good-bye to everybody. Even hugged the teacher.

I’m willing to bet with a high degree of confidence that she’ll march in the room next week like she’s an old pro. I’m finally seeing that pattern emerge. That the first time she does something she is reluctant and afraid, but the 2nd time, she’s all about it. As if the fears never happened.

Today’s tumbling class started out similarly. She was supposed to go sit on the blanket with the other 3 yr olds. She stood next to the blanket. I stopped to tell one of the teachers that she has Sensory Processing Disorder and will likely be a bit overwhelmed by the group at first. At that point, while I’m holding Ess as we’re getting ready to go Parent/Child tumbling class, Chee has her hands around my neck and is trying to climb on me. She’s not crying (yet) but she’s got the sad, downturned lips. Tears are coming.

This teacher, God bless her, said she has seen this many times, and is very reassuring. She offered me the choice of going into class with Chee or just letting her (teacher) take Chee and although she’ll cry for a few minutes, she’ll likely get over it. She said she’s done it many times and is more than comfortable just picking her up.

What the hell, I thought. Let’s try something new.

I told Chee she was going to go with Miss Ethnic-name-I-can’t-quite-recall while I went to Ess’ tumbling class. The teacher scooped her up and I walked off to Ess’ class. By the time I got there and looked back at Chee, she was happily bouncing on the trampoline.

And that was that.

Afterwards I was told she did fine, no tears, and had fun. Chee told me all the things she did in class, including, I cried.

There’s a time and a place for both approaches, I think. At tumbling it was easy to let her go off with someone, even though upset, because I knew she was going to dive right into some fun sensory experiences like jumping, rock climbing, sliding and crashing!

At Dramakinetics, it was all about movement and music and there was time spent sitting in a circle. Music can be very emotional for Chee. She needs time to process and acclimate. In general Dramakinetics is going to be more challenging for her, but the right kind of challenging.

As an aside, I have my hands full with Ess. She was a riot during her tumbling class. Her first ever ‘formal’ class. Determined to climb UP the slide (something I’ve never seen her try at home or any other playground), she was chock full of stubbornness at being redirected away from it again and again. I have never seen her so relentless before. And just when she finally was okay with trying some of the other equipment, it was time to move to the area next door to do something new.

This she was not okay with. She kept running up to the gate shouting , “Open gate! Open gate!”

Neither was she okay with the bubble machine at the end. Bubbles are great, Ess loves bubbles. But she was, truly, devastated that she herself was not blowing the bubbles. She took one look at the little machine spewing forth all those bubbles, crossed her arms, fell to the ground, and cried, I wan buuuubbbbbblessssss.

Oy, these girls keep me hopping.