For me and a lot of other Moms signing up for and committing to a class for your little ones can be tough. You never really know if it is going to keep their attention, are they going to flip out, are they going to be the “bad one” and basically make you spend money to have your parenting skills judged by other Moms for 45 minutes? It is enough to make you stay inside and skip the enrichment of group activities all together.
Recently we took two classes at Mama’s Wellness Joint and I want to share our experience with you because these classes are great and worth getting the courage to try. I asked the owner Paige Chapman if she would consider extending the FREE class offer for HipsterHenry.com readers so you could read the below and see if the classes are right for your family. If you decide after you read this that you would like to try a class e-mail info@mamaswellnessjoint.com and tell them HipsterHenry.com sent you. They will be expecting you. You can pick from a single adult class or one of the great family classes they offer.
Family Yoga with Henry (3) & Ollie (22 mos.)
I wanted some back-up so I asked my husband to join us at Family Yoga on Sunday at 10:00 a.m. It was great to do something new as a family and it was great to share yoga with my boys. The class was better than I thought it would be. It is totally geared towards keeping kids entertained. The theme of the class was space. We pretended to be rockets taking off and visiting each of the planets. Yoga poses were mixed in with all our movements and it was really nice to see Henry (3) do his first downward dog. Ollie (22) is my tough one right now. He is stubborn and pushing for independence and basically does the opposite of everything I need him to do. My husband and I did have to take turns watching Ollie since we decided to remove him from the room for not behaving. We brought him back in and he basically did his own thing for the rest of the class. And you know what? It was okay. The teacher Emma and the other family taking yoga were great about it. To wrap up that class Emma read books which settled Ollie down and he got to redeem himself a little bit. I am going to go back but I will probably just take Henry. The reason is Henry did really great but was distracted when his brother was in the room and equally distracted when he wasn’t. I am glad I gave Ollie the chance to check it out but I think with his personality he needs one more year.
Kid’s Yoga ages 2-4
Determined to not give into my fear I signed Ollie up for Kid’s Yoga ages 2-4 and took him the next day. I read the class description and even though he is just under two I wanted to see how he would do. I had no idea what to expect with from this class or from Ollie. Honestly the class was tough. But I would say we were all in the same boat. There were four kids in the class total and they all took turns being distracted, not listening and fussing. My anxiety was high because all I wanted him to do was listen and because he can be pretty stubborn and I was praying he would not flip out. But I have to get over that. The teacher is very experienced in teaching children’s yoga. She is also does a really good job of correcting the children when they have strayed. At first this was tough for me because I didn’t want Ollie to have to be corrected or seen as not focused or listening. But the kid is 22 months and in his first structured class ever. He needs this and so do I. At the end of class the teacher said exactly what I needed her to. She said that the children are getting used to each other, a new room, her as a teacher and we should not get discouraged. The first class was tough but I am looking forward to the second one and being there when it finally clicks for Ollie…which probably will not happen until the last class.
The point of this post is that we are all in the same boat. Sometimes our kids play along and make us look good and sometimes they don’t. I am going to recommend that you try Mama’s Wellness Joint and its classes especially if you are like me and can get anxious about stuff like this. The teachers are very good. The programs are interesting and fun to do with your children and they are understanding that kid sometimes or all the time will be kids. E-mail info@mamaswellnessjoint.com and say HipsterHenry.com sent to receive a FREE class.
