Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Classes at the Community Center

This is Si View Community Center where we attend children's classes, go to the indoor playground and enjoy monthly family night. Family night involves dinner cooked by the local high school culinary club (for a $1 donation), crafts for the kids and entertainment. We've seen Valentine's Performing Pigs and the Amazing Bubble Man this year. The food is good, the entertainment is a blast--and the price (free) can't be beat. Our community center is part of a Metropolitan Parks District and therefore subsidized, making the prices quite hard to beat.

We trudge up this pathway at least 3 times a week in the fall/winter/spring. Caroline takes a class called "Mini-Movers" which is mommy and me style. Ezra sits in the corner and reads books while he waits for us. He took this class when he was Caroline's age.
I don't have many pictures of Caroline's class because it's hard to participate and take pictures at the same time. Caroline's favorite parts are playing with the parachute and the balls.

These classes are what have taught my kids about "clean up time".

Ribbon spinning.

The teacher, Miss Sara. We do love Miss Sara. She has a daughter Ezra's age and a son Caroline's age and they each participate in classes with her.
Ezra's classes are "drop off" meaning that mommy doesn't have to participate. Instead, I sit in the entryway and try to entertain Caroline and gab with all the other moms and dads. It's a nice break and sort of a social hour too. And Ezra LOVES his classes. This year he did "Fun in Fitness" with Miss Sara and "Hot Tot Sports" with Miss Jessica.
Here he is scoring a goal in Miss Jessica's class. She taught the kids tee-ball, soccer and basketball. She is good about teaching proper form, real rules and game etiquette.

Here is Ezra receiving his certificate of participation. That silly little girl walked right in front of my camera multiple times that day.

Ezra with Miss Jessica.

And Ezra with Miss Sara.

During "Fun in Fitness" the kids walk a balance beam, climb a ramp, jump off the end, do a somersaults and then crawl through a tunnel. Ezra got to jumping pretty high.



These kids can really get down with their "this is how the animals dance" song.

Look at those dancing elephants : )

Their class uses the parachute as well.

I love this picture of Ezra throwing the ball up high--it's almost at the ceiling here.
Listening to Miss Jessica instruct him on proper base running technique. This particular morning he ran from home to first, second, third and then slid into home. No one told him to slide, I'm not sure why he did it. But it was cute.

The community center has an indoor playground 3 days a week. We make use of it every Monday after Caroline's class. We used to go more, but now we're too busy with classes. The indoor playground has been a great learning experience for our kids. Ezra has had to be carried out screaming before because of fights over blocks, cars, etc. In the moment my embarrassment levels are through the roof and I think that I can never return. But we know that if we give up, he'll never learn. And he has gotten much better. We still have moments, but they are much fewer and farther between. All these kids in one big room are good at knocking off each others rough edges!

If you've never been to an indoor playground, make sure you google to see if there is one near you (unless you live in sunny California and don't need it, ahem, A-Megan).


This is our local children's librarian. She hosts story time every Wednesday morning and Thursday night. This picture was taken during a Thursday night "pajama" session. We never have time to don pajamas before running up for story time. But, Miss Jennifer faithfully wears her pjs and fuzzy slippers for Thursday nights. We generally attend either the young toddler or pre-school sessions on Wednesday morning. Who doesn't love story time? And Miss Jennifer has more energy than all the toddlers in the room. She sings and makes silly noises (not that kind) and jumps around and teaches rhymes and hand jives and keeps all the kids entertained. She does not just sit and quietly read a story. Ezra has attended story time since he was 8 months old and Miss Jennifer will be dearly missed.

One last bit here. Last night as I was brushing my teeth, Ezra was settling into our bed for his nightly "tell me a story, daddy" ritual. Here's how our conversation went:
Ezra (pulling covers up over himself): "I need to go to sleep so that I can get more energy!"
Mommy: "Oh really?"
Ezra: "What will I do with my new energy, momma?"
Mommy: "Drive mommy crazy."
Ezra: "Mommy, I don't know how to drive, maybe when I am older."
Hee hee.

Life right now is full of good-byes and packing boxes. We'll keep you all posted as our move-out happens. 10 days left in our little house!

4 comments:

Megan Miller said...

Looks like a really fun place.

Yes, we have sunshine but why do I still have to "make" them go outside?

Amy said...

What a neat center! I would love it if there was something like that near us. Especially in the summer months when the kids seem to get bored so quickly.

Grammanita said...

Fun to see where the kids play. Sorry we don't have anything like that here in AF, but maybe Pocatello does. Can't wait to play with them here!!

The Chatty Housewife said...

Looks like fun! Missed you last night at J's birthday party, but it was fun to get to know your kids while T went and played racquetball with the guys. Your kids are great!