Structured activity

On Monday, Isaac will be starting a new class -- we'll be taking Music Together once a week for the next ten weeks.

It's been a long time since he's been enrolled in a structured activity. In fact, he's only ever taken two classes, which is extremely unusual for his peer group. Some of the kids he plays with are in preschool already, but even those who aren't in school take classes: art, music, sports, foreign language, science, and so forth. And now we're joining the trend.

Right before Isaac turned one year old, we tried a Kindermusik class, but I didn't like the songs and Isaac didn't seem impressed either, so after our nine classes were up, we didn't enroll again. Then when he was 16 months old, shortly after he learned to walk, he took Kindergym through our local community center. He liked that better, so we stayed with it for about six months. There was no instruction, so he didn't learn any gymnastics -- it was just free play in a kiddie-gym environment, which was fine during the rainy season, but when summer started I couldn't see the point of not playing outside instead.

So that's what we've been doing since last May, when we quit Kindergym -- for nearly a year we've just been hanging out and doing our own thing. In addition to pursuing our own interests (which means doing a lot of gardening!), we belong to two separate playgroups, so we have standing engagements to get together with friends two mornings a week. Both playgroups are informal groups, however, not structured like a class would be. This past week we went to Studio Grow with one playgroup, and took the ferry to have lunch in San Francisco with the other. The week before that, we went to two different parks. Life is good.

I'm mostly hoping the music class has good songs, and that it encourages Isaac's existing interest in singing and playing simple instruments. But I'm also hoping it will help him to feel more comfortable participating in a group. I've noticed that he seems overwhelmed in boisterous surroundings, and he prefers to quietly observe, often from the safety of my lap. For instance, even though he loves to sing, he really didn't enjoy the music time at Studio Grow this week, and he didn't relax enough to sing until later, when he was on his own. Maybe this is just his temperament, and nothing will change it, and that's fine too. But I want to give him a chance to learn to enjoy a group musical experience, and regularly attending a class seems the best way to do that right now.

But if he hates it, then we'll quit after the session is over, and we'll go back to playing duets in our own living room. Two days ago we sang "Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" together, and I played the autoharp while Isaac accompanied me on the cymbals. Life, as I said, is good.