Taking a new turn

I feel I am neglecting the blog.  And I miss the opportunity to reflect.  But it was busy again today.

Sag started a gymnastics class.  It was a watershed moment.  

He has been interested in gymnastics for a few months.  (The original spark was watching his cousin in her gymnastics class one day when he accompanied his aunt to pick her up.  The Olympics and YouTube have provided continued inspiration.)

This class brought together a confluence of positive factors.  He has a longtime friend in the class.  There is another boy.  The teachers are both men.  (I think he was fully expecting to be the only male for miles around...I think I was, too.)  Being a homeschool class, the class happened in the early afternoon and the gym was a peaceful oasis.  The two teachers split the six kids into two groups of three.  (That is a kickass teacher:student ratio!)  The cost of the class is very affordable.  The owner of the gym/school is a former Olympian.  The gym was clean and comfortable and very well-stocked.  There is a waiting area adjacent to the gym floor with big plate glass windows.

The reason the just about perfect set up was so important: as stoked as Sag was for this experience, he had no idea how hard some of it was going to be.  Really frakking hard.  He had to face feeling incapable and inept...within himself, in front of a friend and in front of a teacher.  This is something that is typically very challenging for him.

And yet...I watched him try so hard...and when he still couldn't do it, try some more.  (Rope Climbing)  I watched him try to figure something out...and not quite get it...and then try again...and then not quite get it...receiving an instruction from the teacher to make an adjustment...and then doing perceptibly better.  (Trampoline)  I watched him throw himself up into a handstand...and then crumple onto himself hurting his neck.  Then I watched him recover under the calm voice and watchful gaze of his teacher.  (Floor)

He did so much more.  He said the hour felt like forever (in a good way).  He said he didn't love it, but definitely liked it.  He liked his teacher.

I am so happy for Sag that he had this opportunity to follow a passion, transform himself through struggle and experience and learn new things.  Watching him, I remembered that it was around the age he is now that I began to struggle during gym class.  I started hating my body for not being able to do what I saw others do.  For being heavy when I saw others being light.

(I totally remember not being able to climb the rope during the President's Challenge during the upper grades of elementary school.  But, everyone got a patch!)

Sag may never be able to climb the rope either.  (I never did and I turned out no worse for the lack of wear, I think.)  But, he has something I never did.  The chance to work with a gymnastics teacher who knows what he's doing and has a way about him.  The chance to work with this teacher closely, in an environment that inspires and challenges and feels safe.  He is going to get to practice persistence.  He may not get to the top of that rope, but I have a feeling he's going to go higher than he did today.  (He could not get up above that first knot...the one a few inches off the ground.)  And when he does, he is going to know what it's like to feel that special surge of electricity go through your body when you know you've really accomplished something.

We're not settled into a daily or even a weekly rhythm yet.  But, I am realizing that we are writing the next verses to our homeschooling song.  The kids are growing into their own learning experiences in new ways.  Accepting fresh challenges, growing their passions and curiosity further outward.  The extension of progress and process is making sense to them in a way that it hasn't up till now.  They are readier to put into practice outside of themselves, the motivations and machinations that have driven them in their more private paces and efforts to learn.

This is something.  Amongst the chaos, I am starting to find meaning.

Peace.