Lessons

Avery has been taking a gymnastics class this summer.  The last class was last week.  The first and last classes were the only two classes parents were allowed to watch (in the room - a parent could watch through the door if s/he so desired).  It was interesting to see the progress in Avery's skills.  Avery's got relatively good balance for her age, and she's fairly coordinated, so she "passed" the class and was cleared to move onto the next class.  Long story short, we're doing the next class at a different facility so she can remain with the same teacher who did her first few classes.

Avery (with BFF Elise in the back) at gymnastics class, August 2011

Avery jumping on the trampoline. 

Avery also took two-week daily private swimming lessons.  I opted for this after a friend said how much her daughter progressed with swimming during semi-private lessons.  Since I couldn't get a match for semi-private, and because we have a trip to Mexico coming up in October, we opted to bite the bullet and go for private.  I'm so glad we did!   Avery made huge progress.  She eagerly and easily dives under the water to retrieve objects from the shallow end of the pool, is learning side breathing for swimming, can float on her back and kick without adult assistance, and generally is looking more like she's swimming.  We're going to continue with semi-private lessons this winter.

Dance continues to be Avery's absolute favorite activity of all time.  She did a pre-ballet class  during the late summer.  In a few weeks she'll start an hour-long class of tap, ballet, and jazz.  And we've decided she'll have a dance party for her BD this year.  Her dance teacher does BD parties on the side, so it was the obvious choice given Avery's love of dance!

Finally, Avery and I did some soccer lessons at a community center this summer.  It required parent participation, so I brushed up on some soccer skills, too.  At first, I wasn't sure it was something Avery would want to continue.  However, as she got better with each class, she enjoyed it more and more. I asked her at some point if she'd like to do more lessons and she said yes.  I didn't think we were going to be able to squeeze in soccer given our already full schedule, but fate stepped in.  Her preschool has an optional soccer clinic once-a-week before school starts, so I'll just need to drop her off at school a bit early for that.  Perfect!

Given the seemingly many activities we have her signed up for, I feel it's worth noting that Avery loves all of her activities.  I don't make her do any of them.  She likes to be active.  We have two days per week* without any activities other than school so we can relax and enjoy impromptu playdates, etc.

* This excludes weekends which are also both free days.  I figure weekend activities can wait until absolutely necessary (games during elementary school or whatever).