Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

Liz takes dance class at a small studio a couple of miles from our home. It is a combination tap/ballet class for girls ages 3 to 5.

I mentioned in an earlier post that she doesn't go to school yet, so this dance class has been her only experience with a structured learning environment thus far. She is one of the youngest in the class yet she does well and seems to enjoy the time she spends there. However, she has repeatedly told my husband and me that she doesn't want to take dance.

We don't want be the type of parents that force tons of extra-curricular activities on our child, but we don't want her to just quit at the drop of a hat without putting in the effort either, so Scott (my husband) and I have decided to make her stick it out through their recital in June and then allow her to choose whether or not to continue taking lessons.

Today was the first dress rehearsal for the recital and let me tell you, there is nothing cuter than a whole room full of preschoolers dressed like Carmen Miranda! Well, Liz put on that costume and danced her heart out and promptly announced that she wanted to continue dancing. I guess she just needed the cool costumes to convince her! She is quite the performer, she loves to make up songs and dances at home. I guess today she realized that there is a direct correlation between taking dance lessons and performing on stage. It will be interesting to see if she still wants to continue after she has experienced the entire stage/audience thing.

On another subject, my father has come to stay with us for a couple of weeks while my mom is on vacation. Daddy is an 84 year old World War II veteran who has a few health issues that make it impossible for him to stay by himself. He is a very easy going guy so having him around is actually a lot of fun. He has to take periodic naps though, and I'm not sure how much luck I'm going to have keeping Liz quiet while he sleeps. Hmmm, I think I'll be making a lot of afternoon trips to the playground this week!