The first one was a long time coming. We had been at Clara's current dance studio for a year now. We were in pretty deep... she did the Nutcracker with them last year, in the spring Clara was enrolled in 4 classes and Alex was enrolled in two. And since they also offered music lessons, Alex was enrolled in piano lessons there (and Clara was eagerly anticipating violin lessons). And to top everything off, Clara and the studio owner's daughter became best friends... taking classes together, playdates, birthday parties... the whole enchilada.
BUT... the place is an organizational nightmare. I had been frustrated by this for some time and wanted to walk away BUT they were doing the Nutcracker again this year and Clara was determined to be in it. I tried so hard to look past the chaos.... but Wednesday at the first day of the new session I was met by even most chaos than there had been before. I wanted to be mad, but I couldn't be... I was sad and depressed... I knew this was it. I couldn't take it anymore and because of that I would have to pull Clara out of the Nutcracker.
Jeff was out of town so I didn't want to do this alone... we would wait to tell her until the weekend when we were both there. In the meantime, some of Clara's friends who had also left the studio had invited her to go to their new classes with them. So, the next couple of days was spent talking to the moms of those friends and then to those studios. I had options in place to tell Clara when we would tell her about the Nutcracker.
Saturday was the day... we decided to tell her first thing in the morning. It's an understatement to say that it did not go well. She was inconsolable. She actually accepted the Nutcracker thing fairly well.... what she had trouble with was that she would not be dancing with the same group of girls as last year. We had to explain to her that none of those girls were returning this year... they had ALL gone somewhere else and that she could try classes at the new places with her friends.
She went down to her room and continued to sob for a while. Then she calmly came upstairs and announced that she wanted to try class with her friend "O" and with her friend "L". And, she wanted to know if she could still have playdates with the studio owner's daughter... I said I would try to arrange that. She's been fine ever since and is very excited about trying the new classes. We'll try one this week. I told her that at this point she may try both but at January we'll reevaluate and pick one to continue with.
This all went down while Alex was at rehearsal for the church musical. We had to pick him up at 3 and race across town to the music store to pick up his guitar for his lessons that started today (not his regularly scheduled class, but he had other obligations this saturday and next).
Just a side note: the guitar lessons are also fallout from our split with the studio. With all of the chaos there, I had already decided mid-summer that we would take as few classes as possible there. So, I had been on the lookout for a new piano teacher for Alex. It was hard to get motivated, since Alex hadn't been that into piano... so, guitar lessons it was.
We had thought we were going to rent a guitar but the purchase price isn't much higher than the rental rate so we bought him a guitar and a backpack style carrying case. He was so excited.
While at the store, Clara kept staring wistfully at the violins. So, in a fit of guilt over the whole Nutcracker fiasco that morning, we checked into lessons for her (we had previously told her we would sign her up but she had to wait until after the Nutcracker). Given that we homeschool, they were easily able to find an opening during the day for us... so she's enrolled. She starts a week from Friday and sometime between now and then, we have to go have her fitted for a violin.
I guess all things happen for a reason... Alex had his first guitar lesson today and absolutely LOVED it. He came home practically vibrating with excitement. He immediately gathered us all up and showed us what he had learned today....
(please excuse the photo... he was so excited that I didn't want to ruin it all by arranging him in better light LOL)He's keeping his guitar in his room and has already gone down to practice twice this afternoon. He never had this excitement with piano. Let's hope it lasts!
Okay... Clara wants to take over my computer to play Webkinz since Alex is on their computer!
'nite!
I'm glad you made your decision about dance and I hope you are at peace with it. I was in the same situation and it was eating me up inside and so far we are so much happier. Maddi was also very good friends with the studio owner's daughter and had some really good friends at her old studio, but I knew we needed to make a change. Fortunately kids bounce back easily and before long she'll be just as comfortable with the new place as the old.
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