little gym.

our girl, in a goofy mood 'cause she's on her way to the little gym!

so we enrolled elsie in the little gym for the summer session. it's great fun - we go every saturday morning for 45 minutes. when i go into her room to get her from her sleep on saturdays i ask her, "do you know what we're doing today?" her eyes get wide and her voice gets low, "go lil-ly gym today?" yep, going to little gym. rush of excitement followed by screaming, "go lil-ly gym RIGHT NOW?" i'm so glad she loves it...

it begins with a group activity. we sit in a circle to introduce ourselves (in song of course!), then walk in a circle to music directing us to do silly things like fall down. yes, that's right, fall down. the floor is matted of course. then it's the fun parachute or some other large group activity. independent exploring comes next, though at this age the parents are in tow. they have balance beams, bars to swing on, giant mats for forward rolling (which is good for their inner ear, by the way). all kinds of fun things. elsie sometimes just likes to run around the room like a crazy person, screaming with glee the whole way, then slamming into mommy or daddy so that we all go crashing to the floor. it's actually quite fun, and very comical.

jumping on the giant air-filled thingie (better for them than trampolines).

finishing off a forward roll!

on the balance beam! she's getting good at this.

after some independent exploring and learning a new skill (the first day was the forward roll), a bunch of squishy, colorful balls come out with mini basketball hoops. great fun. after singing the "it's time put the balls away, balls away" song, we sit in a circle again for bubbles! every child gets bubble blown at them, then a stamp on their hand and it's time to go home. and hopefully take a nap!