In early Spring we decided to get Siena involved in classes provided by our local community center. So we signed up for a Princess Ballet class for ages 18 months to 3 years and an open Art class. It was apparent as Siena and Mommy set off for the first princess class that it was going to be a fun time every Wednesday morning. Siena was very excited about wearing her tu-tu and Mommy bought her some sparkly pink shoes fit for a little princess in training. The class is tailored to little ones but probably more suited to the 2+ age set rather than the 18 month olds, which is what age she was when we signed up. What I learned about Siena is that there is a big difference that those extra months would have made. We had a special visit from Daddy one class morning and Siena delighted in showing off for him. Nonetheless she was highly entertaining to watch and equally charming as she managed in most of the 7 classes to do her own thing. As this was our first small group experience in a structured setting I wasn't too concerned with making her do exactly what was expected and maybe she just didn't want to be a princess or do ballet with the group. It's all about finding out about what interests her, right?
So about mid-way through the princess classes she started an Art class on Fridays and that was a lot of fun as well but look out...I remember the teacher Ms. Wendy saying to me on the first day "just let her do whatever she wants" as I followed closely behind Siena trying to prevent her from carving a path of destruction through our sweet little world of art. We made all kinds of interesting crafts; picture frames, cards, balloon art, painted many pictures, played with homemade play dough, and worked with lots of stickers. It was a fun time for Siena and Mommy as well but I think towards the end Ms. Wendy came to her senses and understood the attentive Mommy in me. Siena was always thinking outside the creative box and painting everything in sight, dumping bowls and bins of small parts and just being a little girl and having loads of fun.
