Can't get past her cold feet

[stormandtrooper]

Hi all,

Our 7 year old daughter is a bright bubbly creative child. She loves to dance and sing at home. We feel she would get so much out of a dance or gymnastics club but, despite saying she would like to do it, as soon as we get as far as identifying a group she gets cold feet and we can't even get her to go and have a look!

Anyone got any ideas how we can help her with this, we don't want her to miss out.

Many thanks

Do any of her friends attend a class? Start off by going to one where there's someone she knows

What if you just book her in somewhere for a taster session and spring it on her? I'm sure if you explain to the class tutor then they would allow you to stay and ideally join in - if she sees you putting yourself out there she might feel better about it (even if you do feel like a bit of a wally..) although my DD'l is often reluctant to try new things and I've found the best thing to do is shove her through the door and run! She always comes out smiling....

Maybe see if there are one off workshops/tasters running over the holidays. If not easter, then over the summer. Also could you look for a parent & child dance class? I've seen these advertised occasionally & might be a way to get started?

Maybe this is her vocalising that she doesn't want to do gymnastics. What would she like to do as an extra-curricular activity.
I hate having cold feet and gymnastics was my idea of hell.

Thanks everyone some really great ideas!!!

my eldest was like this when she started dancing. number of times I put her name down for places and arranged to go and then had to cancel. I ended up doing it at lots of schools as I was too embarrassed to keep letting down the same one. I ended up finding one through having met the person running it, when i told her they knew she was nervous about it but would help her, and she knew I had spoken to them, she agreed to go and try it. For the first few weeks she was nervous about going but loved it once there. now she has done numerous exams and loves it. Would she perhaps agree to going and talking to a teacher or just watching a class initially? I think any dance school would be happy to encourage her in this way. if she felt she was just going to watch a class she might agree to go and would be relaxed enough to enjoy watching it. Then perhaps after you can discuss it back at home and see if she might like to try joining in the next week?