Changes for Isaac

This past weekend, Isaac had his performance at Circus Juventas - his third year in the program. Unfortunately, of the three performances he was only able to make one of them - the first missed because I was out of town and it just couldn't work, the third because he had been up the night before puking (and yes, the test came back as STREP). But It didn't really matter that much, because after 3 years, his performance was relegated to jumping rope, 3 rotations in a German wheel, and a whole lot of "Ta DAA" standing around.

I feel like in years past, once you made it past the toddler stage, there was a bit more to see with the Kinders, but this year, it was more of just a Toddlers Plus sort of routine. I didn't really see them developing any new big skills. And of an hour class, I saw Isaac on his butt at least half of that time while other people did things. Add to this, there was a very solid line (physical and virtual) between the class and the parents, and I don't believe I exchanged more than 5 words with his teachers, and whenever I did, they looked at me like I was a little nuts.

As I was starting to figure out that their show was going to be something of a dud, that he wasn't being trained for anything flashy, I started watching around the other practice areas, at the other older kids doing their more advanced skills... and truth be told, over the course of the year, I watched them all do ONE thing over and over and over and over again, with refinements. The lady on the rope swing did her routine twice a week, and yes she got better and better at it, but she was up there for 10 min total over the hour. The rest was talking and watching.

It made me think of polar bears in a zoo - the way they just sort of do the same routine over and over, and you see them walking in that loop, stepping on their well worn footprints - you can set your watch to them. Now, I understand that Circus is a PERFORMANCE, and you're performing a ROUTINE, and you simply need to do that routine over and over until you get it RIGHT. But watching, I was wondering - how much exercise are they getting really? If we moved into a more advanced class, how much fun would working that same skill over and over be? In general, Circus is a lot less about the tumbling and exercise and more about the Theater and Performance.

And for a lot of kids, that works out well - I also liked theater to a point, but I also remember that in my Children's Theater days that it was a LOT of sitting around and waiting and waiting and waiting and NOT fidgeting or you'll get yelled at. I am not sure Isaac has that temperament.

I was having doubts about whether we'd want to continue in the program next year. Isaac solved the problem for me: After his show, he said that "Circus is a lot of sitting around - maybe I'll come back when I'm a teenager. I want to do Karate and Soccer now"

So after 3 years of saying "Isaac goes to Circus School", we're hanging it up: We may revisit in a few years, but we're going to focus on sports where he can run his little tail off pretty much non-stop (Soccer!),