Rocky's Community Classes

Yes, that's how he throws the ball...

In the on-going effort to discover what your child likes to do, parents often sign their kids up for short classes through the community. This has proven to be very helpful in determining Rocky's talents and interests but mostly has been a source of great entertainment for us. In doing so, we've learned some things about our son. To expose our child to both extremes of masculine expression, we signed him up for a sports class and a dance class. The dancing started first, and Rocky ended up entertaining not just me, but all the parents present, as we huddled together, peering at our children through a thick glass window. I wish I would have brought the video camera to all of his classes. Though he loved it, Rocky is not skilled at dancing in any way. While the other 3 year olds were walking the balance beam, hopping and pirouetting, Rocky sported his signature move, a one-legged lumber skip with his tongue sticking out. No matter what the teacher told the class to do, this is how he worked the space in the room. Everything else required assistance or else he ended up on the ground. No matter what he was doing, he was giggling though, so it was a parental success. The sports class began with soccer. He preferred to punch things... a true Rocky, and clutched his soccer ball, for fear that if he set in on the ground, someone would kick it. While the group was stretching, Rocky was off to the side organizing the pile of soccer balls. He finally gave up and joined the group as the neat little pyramid he was constructing kept toppling. We also discovered that he is not the fastest runner. He is, by far, the slowest. Maybe the tongue is interfering with his aerodynamics. As the swarm of kids, chased the ball, he bounced along several feet behind, his tongue lagging in the breeze. The pinny was huge, and hung off his shoulders until finally, he threw it to the ground and stormed off the field. The next week, the kids played flag football. Throwing the ball with Dad was fun.. but mostly funny. Then they brought out the flags. Something about kids pulling his flags didn't jive and he was off the field crying, "I don't like this." This week, he tries tee ball. I'll let you know how it goes.