I'm obviously not super into cheerleading, but after less than successful attempts at dance, swimming, and karate, I chose not to enroll Molly in any kind of activity this winter. After much deliberation, I thought we'd try this out. It was only a 3 day commitment. She knows some of high school kids anyway because they work in the daycare and would hopefully be more willing to cooperate. Jack could do it, too. There was another little girl from daycare doing it. It seemed like something worth trying.
Jack - There were only 4 little boys who signed up. Jack was excited and had fun doing somersaults on the mat and being hoisted in the air. Otherwise, the 3 boy cheerleaders wrestled with the kids and tried to keep them entertained at least for a little bit of the 2 hour clinic. Jack had fun, but 2 hours is a long time. He lost interest and hung out with me for quite a while.
When it came to the actual halftime performance during the game, he chickened out. Over the course of the performance, he got more brave to the point where he actually ran about 20 ft out on the court when it was his turn, only to turn and run back to me. It's ok. He's little.
Molly - Wednesday was a little rough. She laughed -She cried. She had fun - She was scared. She participated - She ran back to me crying. It was a typical Molly experience. On Thursday, though, she was great! She had fun and did mostly what she was supposed to the entire time. On Friday, it was even better! She ran to her group when we got there. She sat with them through the entire first half of the ball game and said the cheers. She did her dance like a champ at halftime. I was so proud of her! My mom and dad came to the game and said maybe she'd finally found her niche. I don't know about that, but we can certainly sign up for the cheer camp again next year and I think it was good for her to have a positive experience with some type of extracurricular activity!
