There are so many benefits to having your children join a sport when they are young. When children take part in a sport when they are young they have more time to perfect the skills of their particular sport, allows them to learn team work sooner, and it provides something kids love, a daily routine! Some youth sports begin as early as 2 years old. We felt 2 years old was too soon for our children to begin sports.
Jonathan and I decided that when our children reach the age of 5 they can join a sport. My prayer for my children has always been, “Lord, please reveal our children’s purpose and talents to them and to us, their parents, so we can encourage them in it.” When Julia was learning how to walk I noticed she would walk on her toes. As time went by, her preference for walking remained on her toes. I knew in my spirit that the Lord was showing me she would be a dancer. However, we had an age limit and I had to wait until she turned 5 to enroll Julia in a ballet school.
I had no idea how much ballet would cost. When she was almost 5 I started looking into ballet schools. We could see her talent so we wanted to get her started but we did not have a lot of money to spend on extra activities. I found three ballet schools in our area. I didn’t know any better so I chose the cheapest of the three. This particular school offered many styles of dancing.
We enrolled Julia in ballet and tap. It was one class with a split time between the two styles of dance. There was a camera in the studio so the parents were able to view ballet practice. Almost immediately I noticed a few things that didn’t sit well with me. The instructor didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the students during ballet to see if they were doing it correctly. I also noticed that the instructor spent a lot more time on tap than ballet. The end of the year recital was a tap dance and the instructor was making sure they had a lot of time to practice it.
Julia thought tap was interesting but she preferred ballet. When it was time for ballet her focus was remarkable. It was as if she didn’t want to miss any new thing. By the end of the year the only thing Julia was able to show us was the tap dance. The school was nice and the teacher was friendly but I wanted to make sure Julia learned more of what she enjoyed, ballet. So I looked into another ballet school.
I expressed my concern to my husband and he did a financial comparison for this school and another school that was better known for ballet. We found that there wasn’t a big difference. The price was a little higher but they offered more classes during the week for just a few more dollars. So the following year we enrolled Julia into another ballet school. The difference was like night and day.
In September, Julia will be going into her third year at this ballet school. She is still excited about ballet and her ballet school. For the last two years, every night after ballet class, she was still eager to show me what she had learned. She has learned the proper name for each movement, and she has learned how to count in French because French is the language of ballet. She enjoys her instructors and everything she is learning about ballet.
I am so glad we changed ballet schools, she has learned more in the first month of attending her current school than she has learned throughout the six months while she was at the other ballet school.
The other ballet school was good for children who are enrolled for fun or just to be a part of a sport. However, if you truly believe ballet is one of your child’s talents then selecting the right ballet school is very important. The difference between how to encourage your child to continue ballet verses seeing your child light up when talking about ballet.
{ 0 comments… add one now }