Level 5 Laser Lotus*

The 22 month mark is a transition month at Gymboree in which a child can be enrolled in either the level 4 class or the older, level 5 class. The level 4 class was more convenient for us, so I kept him there through his 22nd month and transitioned him to level 5 at the beginning of January.

This new class was great on the surface for a couple reasons, we could keep our great teacher (turns out she's the regional manager for San Diego) and in the last couple weeks of December, I had become increasingly aware of how young his classmates were. Elliott seemed to get great inspiration from watching the older kids do things he couldn't do (after all that's how he got the courage to walk the balance beam...after he saw Dylan do it all by himself.), so I was looking forward to him being around the older kids. I was also expecting the class to be structured more or less like our level 4 class.

Wow, was I surprised! The class was nothing like our level 4 class. Instead of it being about physical activity...and a lot of it. It was a structured class - the last two weeks it has been about 'making cookies'. We still used the Gymboree equipment, but the focus was on imagination and make-believe (something we are trying to foster in our home in this age of instantaneous gratification and round-the-clock entertainment). The bean bags were 'ingredients'. We also used the 'dive sticks' as rolling pins and the flat foam shapes ended up being our 'cookies'. We placed our cookies in the 'oven' and when they surprisingly disappeared, the kids had to climb on all the gym apparati to find them and put the cookies back in the oven. Once they were all done, we took them out and 'ate' the cookies on one of the low bridges that was serving as our 'table'. The kids then told their grown-ups what kind of cookies they were enjoying. So cute! :)

The kids counting to 10 while they waited for their cookies to finish baking

To say it was hysterical would be putting it mildly. It was a riot to see these 22-28 month-olds running around and accomplishing all the different parts of the lesson as well as hear them TALKING! Since most of the kids were non-verbal in his last class, he rarely saw other little ones talking. There is also now a verbal component to his class where the teacher is asking for and encouraging verbal responses from the kids. When we heard one of the first kids telling us what colors she was holding, Elliott was completely enthralled. This is going to be so great for Elliott.

The class is a lot more work for me (Elliott is still getting used to a more focused class, so there is a lot more wrangling involved), but it is a lot of fun. The next two weeks will be a different theme and I can't wait to see what they come up with next!

*Bonus points for the first person to correctly identify where this comes from - without Mr. Google.