Last Day of Gymnastics Class Celebration

Today Karis went to her last gymnastics class.  She was a little sad about this.  I told her if she still really missed it after school started, we could talk about continuing gymnastics. 

Makena happily hung out with me and Kyle while big sis was in class. 

I didn't want Karis to be sad about not doing gymnastics anymore, so I told her we were going to celebrate her last class.  What makes any kid happy?  ICE CREAM!

 

We went to Chik-fil-A to get ice cream.  Derek made time in his busy day to drop by for a short time to join the "celebration" (what a good dad!).  After he left, the girls played in the play area.  We stayed so long, we ended up eating there for lunch.

I left the kids at the table to order our lunch.  As I headed to the counter, Karis called out "Don't get anything spicy or yucky!"  Silly girl.  I don't know why she thought I would get her something she didn't like.  We always get chicken nuggets and fries.

As we were leaving, Karis asked if Daddy went back to work.  I told him he did.  She replied, "I miss him already...."

Good-Bye Gymnastics, Hello Preschool

For more than a year, Karis has been wanting to go to school.  It had a large part to do with living across the street from an elementary school.  She sees kids every day playing at recess.  I once let her peek inside one of the classrooms and from then on it was all over.  She would tell us almost every day she wanted to go to school. 

I told Karis that in order to go to school she had to be four or five years old (I didn't know at that time what age we would send her to school).  So to her, the magic age for anything is four or five and she always says she wants to be four or five years old.  

I also told her that school isn't just playing, but having to learn lots of things.  Knowing that she wouldn't go to school for a long time, I told her she had to learn how to write in order to go to school.  I thought that would pacify her for a little while.  Well, she immediately started trying to write letters.  She would copy a book or ask us how to write them.  She practiced almost every day.  

Fast forward to many months later and she can now write all the letters.  She's now practicing her numbers as well.  She can spell some words by herself like Karis, Mommy, Daddy, Makena and God.  She has just started to read too.  She can read the names of colors by identifying the first letter and knowing what letter each color starts with (is that considered reading??).  She's always been good at being able to tell us what words start with a certain letter.  

 Well, we finally decided it's time to send Karis to preschool.  We signed her up at a local church preschool here in Irvine.  She'll be attending two days a week in the mornings.  We are so thankful that we were given a scholarship so the cost to us has been reduced significantly.   I'm excited for her because I know she's going to love it.  It'll also be nice for me to only have two of the kiddos a couple mornings during the week.

We're going to pull Karis out of gymnastics when she starts preschool.  I think it'll be too much for her to do both (I think it'll be too much for me too!)  She seems okay with stopping gymnastics for now.  We may put her back in later on.

Here are some pictures of Karis in her gymnastics class.

stretching at the start of class

walking on the balance beam

walking backwards on the balance beam

ready to jump off into a foam pit

Gymnastics

Karis is loving her gymnastics class.  Every Tuesday morning, I try to feed her a good breakfast and then she puts on some leggings and a t-shirt.  I pack the iPod and some snacks for Makena and it's a quick drive to the gym (two blocks away from Derek's work). 

Her teacher is great.  She's really sweet and patient with the class.  They do some stretching exercises to begin and then they do a variety of activities during the hour-long class.  

Typically they have an obstacle-like area they work through.  The teacher sits them all down and explains each station.  The kids have to sit and listen and then remember what to do at each station. They  practice different skills as they learn to wait for their turn and stay focused.

It's fun to watch Karis participate, speak up and answer questions, and quickly pick up on new things. She's really enjoying the class and we're enjoying that she's learning more than just gymnastics.  The only disappointment is that she still has plenty of energy the rest of the day.

Karis' first day... of gymnastics

Tomorrow is Karis' first day of gymnastics class. We're all excited about this. We've planned for the monthly expense but moreover knew we wanted Karis to be able to explore this activity as it seems as if it is not only something she enjoys but also something at which she is naturally gifted. Karis loves being active. Jumping. Bouncing. Running. Climbing. Especially climbing. And lately, hanging on things. Here's a link to an earlier post with a video - Karis just under two climbing a rock wall.

I remember being dragged to a large-house building near a McDonald's where my sister Nysha used to practice gymnastics. She was good at it. I can see Karis being good at it as well.

I wouldn't mind if Karis grew up to play softball either. Both my sisters played growing up. I enjoyed going to their games as a little brother. I liked collecting the loose change beneath the bleachers almost as much as I enjoyed watching them compete.

I hope I don't have trouble sleeping tonight as I think about how much fun Karis will have tomorrow!!