I’m trying Ada in swim lessons the four Saturdays in August. If she doesn’t improve in her cooperation or at least not be crying by the end of the lesson, then I’m not putting her in anymore. I’ll take her to the pool or invest in private lessons where I can at least explain Ada’s situation so we can have slower lessons without crying.

Then we have three weeks off of me not carting anybody to a lesson. Wahoo! Then we start tumbling for both her and Jay. These are on Saturday, back-to-back, so I get them over with in one trip. The big issue for me and dance lessons will be going back to work. The options of Saturday lessons were more restrictive than just being able to go during the week. Even our now late 5:15pm lesson will be nearly impossible for me to get to if I’m working in KC. I would at least have to find somebody who can take her to lessons for me if she wants to continue with more dance options.

Their last tumbling lesson is on my birthday, so I have lots of time to figure out the logistics of it all.

Ada did some pilates with me the other day. She wanted yoga pants like mine, so we headed to Target after school and got her an outfit. She wanted the “sports bra” top, but there wasn’t one her size, but she was happy to have the pink tank. The tight fitting nature of this outfit shows off how lean she has become.

I’m going to travel back in time here. Part of sensory processing disorder is something called proprioceptive dysfunction. Ada has it in spades. She has poor motor planning, body awareness and control. She is so clumsy and what people would call “ungraceful.” She has had OT since she was 11 months to help teach her to do everything. Her entire first year at her Montessori school was spent in the life lesson section so an OT and para could work on overcoming this for simple things. If you presented Ada with a pitcher of water, a stool and a sink, she could not coordinate herself or figure out what to do to pour the water in the sink. She just couldn’t get her body to work right to first put the pitcher down by the sink, climb on the stool, pick the pitcher up and pour out the water. And she’s really clumsy. It took a long time of walking practice before she could go through our very wide doorway from the kitchen to the living room without bumping into the side of it. It took forever before I trusted her enough to go down stairs by herself because she would fall.

What does all that have to do with this? In all the dance classes she has taken, she is really ungraceful, clumsy, and it took about nine weeks before she was able to do a front roll. You would watch her and conclude that dancing is just not one of her talents. The one thing she is missing as I see her legs rotated the wrong way, and her knees bent inwards instead of facing up and her lack of being able to really leap is that she isn’t being corrected. She’s taking these through Parks & Rec, and while they are all taught by dance majors from KU, she just doesn’t have any 1-on-1 attention to get these issues corrected.

I’m not trying to pressure-cook her into a dancer. She loves doing it, so I’m provider her a way to do it. And right now, her clumsiness and lack of general body coordination is fine. She isn’t the only one. However, if she wants to keep doing it, that will change.

I unfortunately cannot afford to pay for private lessons and an OT, which is probably what she needs. That’s why I decided to start doing some simple pilates and stretching at home with her. I’m hoping that if we do it enough, where I can be here to help her position her body and devote 1-on-1 attention, it will help her at dance. She was excited to do it with me. I think I’ll surprise her with her own mat too. I’m not really concerned with flexibility or muscles at the moment. I’m just concerned on helping her figure out her body so she can do a saddle stretch or sit in an easy pose or even lotus.

The headband she’s wearing was a $1 find at the sidewalk sale today. She said she’s wearing it to school tomorrow as well.

Ada has done really well in that she has gone and participated without very few sensory meltdowns. She had one issue in the beginning when taking turns, and last week was the first time she wouldn’t go in the class and I had to resort to her breathing exercises to get her to calm down.

She is handling it so well that I enrolled her in another class starting at the end of March that goes until mid-May. This is a creative dance class. It focuses on movement, music and rhythm. Ada has a surplus of movement and creativity. It’s the rhythm part she lacking. It is also taught by the same group of instructors that do pre-ballet. Unfortunately, it isn’t on Saturday. It is on Thursday evenings. It really only affects dinner plans. Easy or pre-fixed meals will have to be a part of that day. I see many trips to fancy Dillons for the Mediterranean bar or rotisserie chicken. Or carry out sushi! I’ll also have to bring Jay with me. It is in the same place, so we can go to that concrete observation area above the gym where he can have freedom to run about. It will work out great as long as I don’t bring anything he can throw over the edge.

I love having these classes available from Parks and Rec. The other classes for younger kids that I’ll try her in are Cherry O’s, which is intro to cheerleading and tumbling, and another pre-dance class that focuses on coordination and flexibility. Next summer, she’ll be old enough to get into a class that really focuses on one area of dance. Hopefully by then she’ll know what she likes the best.

Jay just hit the minimum age to start taking some classes. I’ll look for some sort of tumbling class for him. There needs to be a class called “Please Wear Out My Child So He Will Go To Bed At A Decent Time.” I’ll probably wait until fall and put both of them in the Fitness Fun class. It requires my participation and has activities geared towards coordination skills that prep them for sports — kicking, hitting, catching and so forth without there being any competition. It would be fun to do that with a group of kids rather than just with me in the backyard, I think.

Now we are waiting for Mac and Jay to get ready so we can go back out to eat lunch. Noodles? I’m going to try to convince the family. Then I’m coming home for some baking.