This will be my third week of taking Timmy to a new mommy & me class. It is every Friday morning at a local school (former elementary school turned adult education center). 13-17 months is the designated age range and it is for walking toddlers. This makes Timmy on the younger end of the spectrum and one of two babies who finagled his way in despite lacking the ability to truly walk on his own.
The class convenes around a big white circle painted on the playground for "circle time," which consists of singing, dancing, playing instruments and floating a parachute. Then every mother-toddler pair march inside to the tune of "little red caboose, chug chug chug" for snack time. Timmy climbs into a "big" plastic kid chair and sits at the table to eat whatever is the snack that day. He sips water from a little paper Dixie cup. When he is finished, he "helps" clean up. Then it's time to play outside for the kids, discussion time for the moms. The moms act as babysitters in shifts...the first half watch the kids on the playground while the second half discuss that day's topic (relevant to being the parent of a toddler). After 30 minutes they switch. Finally, story time and arts and crafts end the class. Then I bring a tired out baby boy home for his nap.
I signed up because I wanted to really engage Timmy in fun activities and enjoy doing something I probably won't be able to do with any other kids I may have. The class receives glowing reviews and has a wait list about 30 people long. Best of all, it's $52 for the whole semester and is taught by a woman who is really great at what she does. Even though it's a parenting class, I never really thought I would learn how to be a better parent from it. I've made it through almost 14 months as a mom now, I know his quirks, I know how to do a lot of things for him. And when I don't know something, there is a whole universe of information at my fingertips.
But this class is teaching me how to teach him new things, how to assume he can do something even if it seems too advanced for him, and how to help him learn and interact with other kids in new ways. It's not me deciding what, when, or how to do something, so he has to take his cue from the teacher. There is something so amazing about seeing my young baby respond appropriately to a stranger. That, more than anything else, lets me know that he is growing up and learning and becoming his own person. It makes me feel like I can step back for a moment and just enjoy watching him, knowing that I must have done something right. And really, it makes me so excited to think about what he'll be doing 4 months from now and 4 years from now.
The first day of class, we sang a song at circle time where we went around and said the name of everyone who "came to school today." The teacher looked at the parents when we finished and said, "just think, by the end of the semester, they'll all be saying their own names!" Several of us gasped. It is just crazy to think that he'll learn and change so much, so soon. This is the first glimpse I've had into Timmy's future life as a student and I love it. It will be a very exciting day when Timmy goes to school for the first time, and not just because of the back to school shopping I'll get to do!
2 comments:
That's really interesting. I never really thought of those classes as essentially teaching early childhood development, I thought they were more for the stay at home moms to just get out and socialize them and their kids with other moms/kids. Pretty cool.
I think most mommy and me classes are for moms to socialize, but this one is not and that is why I love it so much. I have learned so much in 3 weeks about early childhood development and Timmy has been forced to play with new people in a new place without me..good practice for dropping him off at daycare when I start working!
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