Corbin's First Tumbling Class

In June, Corbin got to participate in his first Tumbling Tots class. He has had to sit and watch while Leah did may classes and now it was finally his turn to do all the activities. Corbin has very good gross motor skills. We have had many people comment on how well he can run and handle a ball (whether he's throwing or kicking it). So I knew that he would do very well with the activities as well as enjoy them.

Overall, he did pretty well with the class. At first he was really good at rotating to each station and waiting for his turn. But once he got comfortable with how it all worked, he decided that he didn't want to wait around for a chance to do something. He often would get up and run across the room to try to get a ball or cut in line on the tumbling pads. This was very frustrating for me since I had to almost be holding on to him the whole time so I could stop him from darting away. Which was especially hard if Paige was fussy and needed me to hold her. But we survived. His favorite part was always at the end when he got free time and could choose to do whatever activity he wanted. His favorite things to do during free time was to chase and kick a soccer ball all round the gym, shoot baskets in the little basketball hoops, hitting a ball off the tee, or tumbling on the slanted tumbling pads.

However, Corbin's struggles with not wanting to sit still or wait for his turn were very normal since he was only a little over 2 years old at the time. One of the goals of the class is to help teach the children about taking turns. I just figured that the struggles with getting him to stay at one station and wait his turn was part of the learning process. 

This was another one of Corbin's favorite activities. He liked it when he got a turn to do tricks on the bar. And the teacher was really impressed at how long he was able to hang onto the bar. 

Sometimes Corbin's athletic abilities even caught me off guard. We haven't figured out yet if he is going to be right or left handed. Most of his fine motor skills, like writing or eating, he does with his right hand. But when it comes to sports, he really favors his left side. Like he always kicks with his left leg and usually swings left-handed when he's trying to hit a ball. One day they had tee-ball as one of the stations. It was set up over in one of the corners and the kids would just hit towards the wall so they didn't have to chase it very far after they hit it. I told the teacher that he usually hits left-handed and we got him all set up on the left-handed side to take his turn hitting off the tee. However, when we told him to go ahead and hit the ball he ended up taking a right-handed swing and sent the ball sailing across the gym. The teacher had to take off running to the opposite corner of the room to chase down the ball. I felt kind of silly for saying that he would likely hit it left-handed (even though that is how he usually hit it) but I also felt proud that my little 2 year old boy could hit the ball so well!

Corbin really enjoyed the class. I need to get him into another session now that he is older and would hopefully do better with taking turns and following instructions. I love my little ball-playing boy and am excited to see what he's going to do with his talents as he gets older and develops them even more!