Mardson turned three a couple weeks ago and that meant I could enroll him in the ‘tiny tots’ class at gymnastics (he was in the parent taught class); hooray! The first week of being in this class (he’s in there without me, just the teacher and the other students) he came and got me about 3 times. The next week he only came for me once, and the past two weeks he’s been fine without me. He’s doing a great job of following instructions and mostly cooperating with the other kids. He did have a little incident this last Tuesday.
He thinks it’s fun to get pushed around and to play fight, but he doesn’t realize that his cousin, Darron, who’s only 4 months older than him, is the only one who also enjoys doing that and who knows that Mardson is just playing. So Mardson started hitting in class (his idea of an invitation to play) and the teacher was doing her best to work around it and with it. I should mention that all the other kids are a good 2 inches taller or more as they’re all about 6 months older and Mardson isn’t a big kid. Well, the other little boy in class finally hit back and Mardson went to pieces. Apparently he could tell this was not a friendly push and he was totally offended. Sigh. Class was over just about then and I went in and found out what happened. I told Mardson, “There’s no hitting.” And he turned and yelled, “Ya, there’s no hitting!” to the other boy So I clarified that Mardson shouldn’t hit either and I tried to explain that if Mardson doesn’t hit, the others won’t hit either. My funny boy, he doesn’t realize he’s little. He’ll take on anyone, anywhere. I hope it’s a phase. I’m doing my best to teach him other habits, but I’m thinking I’ll probably need a little help from the passing of time. Any thoughts on effective methods for curbing the hitting of random peers for a 3 year old?
Other than that, I’m very impressed with how quickly he’s adjusted to this new class and how much more he’s learning. I think he’s really enjoying the quicker pace and the ability to try things on his own. I’m so proud