"I go to class?"

Brooke & I spent the last 10 Monday & Wednesday mornings at her "class", the preschool classes offered down at the Rec Center. The classes involve lots of playtime and not a ton of structure, the perfect scenario for a toddler. To say Brooke loved to go to class would be an understatement. I know this because she was more than willing to leave Grandma's house to go to class, a feat that typically requires some serious negotiating. She very quickly took to her "teachers" (I use that term loosely here), knew all the other kids' names, and ended up learning a thing or two throughout the term.

This is how each class would go:

First, we played for entirely too long. Brooke was a big fan of the puzzles and playing with the play kitchen. But even she was bored after about 20 mins and would start asking the teachers if it was time to clean up.

Clean up time. (She's actually helping the kids put this away, not trying to steal it.)

She was a pro at cleaning up, mostly because she knew what came next...

"Brooke, Brooke, jump up and down, jump up and down, jump up and down. Brooke, Brooke, jump up and down, now it's time to sit back down." Our girl is not much of a jumper, but she VASTLY improved as the weeks went on. Still keeps at least one foot on the ground, but at least she does more than just bounce her little legs. Loves loves loves this song.

After all the kids got to jump, each child got to pick a song for us to sing. Some of the kids needed their mom to pick or at least suggest a song, but Brooke always knew which one she wanted. The last 3 weeks or so, she refused to sit with me and wanted to sit with the teachers during song time. She's already too cool for her mom.

The only thing that distinguished the Monday & Wednesday classes was what we did after song time. On Mondays, we listened to a Mother Goose rhyme and did a craft (i.e. we colored something and sometimes used glue - by the way, toddlers LOVE glue.) On Wednesdays, we sang a couple extra songs that had dances associated with them. Everyone knows how much I despise organized-dance songs (think Cha Cha Slide), but these were actually pretty darn cute :)

She followed instructions really well, learning terms like "inside", "outside", and "around".

Next up? More play time. This time, we'd either go outside to the playground (weather permitting) or stay inside to ride bikes and play with balls in the gym.

I didn't get a picture of the final activity of the day: snack time. Probably because I was too busy opening a juice box (and shielding myself from the inevitable squirting) or stealing some of her Goldfish (sorry, but toddlers do not need 55 fish a piece - we'd be there all day if I waited for her to eat them all!)

Considering most of the other kids in the class were a whole year older than her (age range for the class was 18 mos. - 3 years), I was so proud and super impressed with how easily she fit in. Classes are over for the holidays, but the next session resumes in January. I'll definitely be signing her up for at least one of the two days.