Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...............today starts summer vacation. Hopefully I'll get my camera out soon and take some sweet sunny days pictures.
I'm going to look back on this day next winter and be so jealous of myself. :)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Sweet but sad
So E is moving up in gymnastics in a week to a tougher class. It focuses a lot on physical conditioning and is three hours a week. Since it starts in the summer, she can't do the preschool gymnastics camp, which I thought would be so cute for her.
She found the information page on the summer camps yesterday. It shows the separate weeks of camp, including Dino Day, Under the Sea/Nemo's Adventures, Into Space, and Treasure Hunt. Each day is themed around those things (and others as the camp goes on), and they get snacks, story time, craft time, and inflatable time (bounce house stuff).
E got really excited reading it, and pointed to all of them ( a total of nine separate theme weeks) and said "Okay mommy, I want to do ALL of them."
When I told her she couldn't she got really sad and cried. It broke my heart to say no to something so sweet and innocent as Under the Sea theme gymnastics and yes to a class focusing on sit-ups, push-ups, and difficult skills.
For the record, she is the one who really wants to do the harder class. I've actually asked her if she'd prefer a fun gymnastics class or a hard one, and she wants to do the harder one. This was just the first time she got to see first-hand what that choice really meant. While other girls her age will be listening to a story, eating a snack, and doing fun gymnastics, she'll be across the gym doing pull-ups. . .
I want her to stay my sweet tiny E forever, and already it feels like she's being forced to grow up too soon. I know I could just say no to the harder class, but I tried that and she was absolutely devastated at the thought of not doing it. I can't take that away from her.
I knew being a parent would present me with some difficult choices, but I wasn't expecting it to be so emotional. I'm happy for my E that she's advancing, but I'm not ready to let go of the sweet preschool innocence yet.
What do you do? Encourage your child to develop a gift that they have? Or encourage them to stay kids and just play? Gymnastics is a difficult sport, too. You have to start young. If this were soccer or tennis, I'd tell her to wait and try some other things before going all out in one sport. (Okay, I wrote this months and months ago, and saved it as a draft--I'm just going to publish it as is, even though I can tell my thought wasn't finished.)
She found the information page on the summer camps yesterday. It shows the separate weeks of camp, including Dino Day, Under the Sea/Nemo's Adventures, Into Space, and Treasure Hunt. Each day is themed around those things (and others as the camp goes on), and they get snacks, story time, craft time, and inflatable time (bounce house stuff).
E got really excited reading it, and pointed to all of them ( a total of nine separate theme weeks) and said "Okay mommy, I want to do ALL of them."
When I told her she couldn't she got really sad and cried. It broke my heart to say no to something so sweet and innocent as Under the Sea theme gymnastics and yes to a class focusing on sit-ups, push-ups, and difficult skills.
For the record, she is the one who really wants to do the harder class. I've actually asked her if she'd prefer a fun gymnastics class or a hard one, and she wants to do the harder one. This was just the first time she got to see first-hand what that choice really meant. While other girls her age will be listening to a story, eating a snack, and doing fun gymnastics, she'll be across the gym doing pull-ups. . .
I want her to stay my sweet tiny E forever, and already it feels like she's being forced to grow up too soon. I know I could just say no to the harder class, but I tried that and she was absolutely devastated at the thought of not doing it. I can't take that away from her.
I knew being a parent would present me with some difficult choices, but I wasn't expecting it to be so emotional. I'm happy for my E that she's advancing, but I'm not ready to let go of the sweet preschool innocence yet.
What do you do? Encourage your child to develop a gift that they have? Or encourage them to stay kids and just play? Gymnastics is a difficult sport, too. You have to start young. If this were soccer or tennis, I'd tell her to wait and try some other things before going all out in one sport. (Okay, I wrote this months and months ago, and saved it as a draft--I'm just going to publish it as is, even though I can tell my thought wasn't finished.)
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