Ballet for 4 (almost 5) yr old ds - he loved it, I felt very self concious

[verybusyspider]

He went for a trial lesson yesterday and because of his age was in the 3-4 group (they do it strictly on age not preschool and receiption class) he'll be 5 in May. He was the only boy but loved it (I don't think he noticed) and said he'd like to go again although has asked to try gymnastics tomorrow night - and on Friday we went and watched karate (which apparently isn't as good as ballet) - I've said he can choose 1 to do after easter.

so I sat in a sea of pink and sparkly things with my 2 littler boys whilst he took the class feeling very self concious and looking like I was in denile at having had 3 boys - ds1 wanted to try ballet because ds2 (3yrs) does it at nursery (just one of the offered activities and I thought why not as my brother did ballet when he was small and he wanted to join in with his friends).. I'm not sure I could sit there week after week thinking everyone thinks I'm mad... is that awful? I'm wondering if gymnastics would be better - obviously he is at an age where I can sway him to choose the 'right' thing....

anyone else have a ds that does dance? how do you deal with the social thing that its unusual that boys do ballet? and not look like you've forced them to do it?

I've reread that and it sounds awful - all about me and not him at all - but I hope you get where I'm coming from, I'm looking for honest opinions from other people who take their lo's to ballet... what would you think?

No real option of "another class" for us, no transport to get us to the next town with a class, the last bus back to our village leaves town at 4.30pm. Its the village hall class or no class. DS doesn't seem to mind, he is with a good friend (girl) from school and a few girls from the year above.

I found a boys do ballet website which had some tips of how to find the 'right' class for boys and I honestly found it quite intimidating - I'm going to stick with the current class on the grounds he's enjoying it, so much so he wants the uniform and I'm trying to work out if he'll stick it out long enough to make it worth while or if getting him the uniform will encourage him to do it for longer!
at the dance school he can do 'dance fusion' when he's a bit older, which is ballet, jazz, tap and street... I still do feel self concious about it, a good friend of mine was very disapproving about it the other day and said I should make more of an effort to find a football class for him which could teach him much of the same thing especially as ds has partical hearing and I think being on an open field would be really hard for him

Tell your friend to get a grip - honestly ! Someone told me that their ds 'wouldn't want to do ballet as they were a boys boy' - since my ds is no shrinking violet by any means and I know how strong its made dnephew, it easily allowed me to file this mum in the 'twonk' box