Today my son had his first day of “school” at Gymboree. At 20 months, he joined the “Level 4” class for twice a week sessions, one of which is “play“, the other being “music”. Before anything though, I’d like to advice new Moms from getting over-excited and enrolling their babies until they’ve tried out the classes several times.
All babies are different, and no matter how adorable (and baby brain-enhancing) Gymbo’s classes look, it doesn’t make sense to do it unless your child is ready and happy doing it.
Anyway, this wasn’t really his first day. His first try at Gymboree was at the tender age of about 9 months. He refused to crawl (which continued until he just got up and walked at nearly 1), and looked pretty stressed out when the very perky teacher cajoled him into going through a tunnel.
We tried again at about a year, this time for the music class, but still he looked a bit weirded out by the whole thing. Fast forward to about 5 months later, and this time I thought we’d give it a go again, but just for “free play” with his big sister. Well, he finally seemed to be enjoying it. And when we did another trial class last week, lo and behold – he LOVED it.
He must have been the most giggly, excited and pro-active kid there. He had the time of his life!! So now, I’ve finally signed him up for the next 2 months (in case you were wondering, it cost me about $200 for 16 sessions – but this includes unlimited play for as long as the enrollment is), and I’ll be letting you know how we get along. Fingers crossed, I hope it’ll last!
[tags]Gymboree,Play,Music,Babies,toddlers[/tags]
Originally posted on October 17, 2006 @ 9:15 am
