Mandy’s Motherhood Musings

Music and Art Class

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother.

We arrived at Liam’s Art and Music class this morning just a little bit early so he could get acclimated to his surroundings. Another class was wrapping up, and Liam happily watched as they danced around the room, sung a couple of songs, and got hand stamps. Perhaps now that Liam’s three, I thought, he might actually go for this sort of thing.

Or not.

First he wouldn’t take his shoes off. Then he wouldn’t play with any toys. Then he did that thing he used to do that I just love – whenever a mom comes over to talk to me, he starts screaming over everything we’re saying. Nice, son.

We started class off in a circle, and the teacher asked each kid in turn what he or she liked to do. Then she’d invent a little song and we’d all pretend to do it. Liking jumping, sleeping, dancing, that sort of thing. When she got to Liam, asking, “What do you want to do, Liam,” he just tugged at my arm and said, “I want to leeeave!” Heh heh, mommy’s embarrassed laugh.

We spent the rest of the “music” segment of the class sitting in the corner, warily eyeing the other children. Then it was time for art, yippee! The teacher explained we’d be making aprons and chef’s hats, going along with today’s theme of “the kitchen.” All of the kids congregated to start coloring their aprons while Liam pulled me over to where all the kids used to be playing. Thankfully we had a very understanding instructor, and she put on a little music for us and suggested we just watch the kids. Slowly we edged closer and closer until we were right next to the partition dividing the room. But that’s as far as we got. I gave up and moved his art project and some markers to where he was sitting, stubbornly away from everyone else.

After that he did seem to have some fun marking on the bottom half of the apron while I drew his name and a few objects on the top half. He didn’t have much interest in coloring or wearing the chef’s hat, but that’s ok.

Liam finally perked up at the mention of snacks. We put the markers away, washed hands, and I managed to lead him to where all the other kids were sitting and enjoying their snacks. I was afraid that Liam would be too picky for their offerings, but when I saw graham crackers, frosting, chocolate chips and sprinkles, I figured we were golden. Except Liam would only eat the chocolate chips. Frosting?! Really, you don’t like frosting?! He did seem to enjoy putting the sprinkles on, at least.

As we left I was seriously contemplating whether we should come back. But then Liam announced that he had fun, and that, “We should tell daddy I had fun, mommy!” He’s excited about showing off his apron, and he keeps talking about the class and what he did there. So while he whined and cried and refused to participate, he was having fun, I guess?

Nine more classes to go. Sigh.