Baby Lessons

Holding up her head! She did this for like ten minutes.

Ever since I watched little Shelby Howard do pull-ups for gym class in elementary school, I have wanted my kids to do gymnastics. I don't particularly care about gymnastics themselves except that they encourage strength training and increase flexibility and balance. I am not flexible AT ALL. When we sat at those dumb machines in P.E. that measure your flexibility, I couldn't even lock my legs so I'm pretty sure my score was terrible. And as for strength, well, I'm 5'0" and normally weigh about 100 lbs and I am not very physically strong. I have done one pull-up in my life and I'm pretty sure I jumped into it so it probably shouldn't even count. The point is, I don't want my children to have the same fate.

I feel the same way about swimming. As you all should know by now, I love the ocean and I love New Hampshire and all its pretty, sparkling clean lakes. I simply love being in the water but I am not a great swimmer, in spite of several years of swim lessons. I was always too chicken to swim in the deep end of a pool alone, having a very strong fear of drowning. Probably thanks to my mom for turning me into a worrier. Anyways, I am hoping to live near the ocean (or perhaps the lake) one day, and I want my kids to be confident swimmers. So I'd like to start them young. Really young. Like I want to start with Tenley now but I haven't figured out where I can {afford to} have regular access to a pool.

Then there are music lessons. I hated the flute. Hated it. But I think that was partly due to my dislike for the teacher who was rather impatient, and my distaste for practicing. Pretty much ever. Then there was the violin. I desperately wanted to learn to play the violin (as it is my favorite instrument) but my teacher moved away after one or two lessons and that was the end of that. Finally, there was the piano, which I also loved but was no good at. I had three different piano teachers (all great) but I did not practice enough and basically never learned to read left-hand music...(and reading right-hand music is still really hard for me). But I did do choir with my ward and Easter choir within my stake and even though I am not the solo singing type, I was told I have a decent soprano voice (don't worry, they said it in a much nicer way than that). Hopefully Tenley will get my mother-in-law's music jeans genes (I literally just typed jeans...embarrassing) because otherwise she is going to be out of luck in this category. And hopefully she'll have some interest in the piano or violin...at least, more than I did.

Of course, we can't forget about tennis, which is the sport I'm best at (I feel like I can say this without being too braggy--I played every year since elementary school and I'm not even that great other than my backhand swing) and the sport that I loved playing in high school especially (mainly because you actually have matches). I also enjoyed soccer (especially in elementary and middle school) and field hockey in high school. Even though Tenley has good genes for running on both sides, I won't force that on her* unless it's something she's really interested in because I was certainly not a fan of cross-country.

Anyhow, I plan on being a very encouraging, supportive mom (not that every mom doesn't think this) and I hope that my children give me the chance to attend lots of games, matches, competitions, recitals, performances, etc. to keep me busy.

What sports will you/did you encourage your children to participate in?
What lessons are you glad they took and which do you regret getting them involved in?

*Technically, I won't force any of this stuff on her, but I do want her to be flexible, a good swimmer, and someone musically adept.