Ready to Sokol-cise.

Or not.

We were invited by a Czech mother in our playgroup to try out the nearby Sokol. What is a Sokol, you ask? Well, it was instituted in the 1920s after then-Czechoslovakia became an independent state from under the Austo-Hungarian Empire. It was started to encourage the people to exercise as a healthy form of living. Official Sokol was discontinued under the Communists (although they instituted their own form of mass population exercise) and then was re-instituted in 1989 after the Revolution. There's your history lesson for today.

Anyway, I thought it sounded like an interesting Friday morning activity for Lydia and I, and even though it is all in Czech I figured it would be simple enough for us to follow along. And we'd always have the help of our Czech friend.

Ok. I admit it was probably a bit intimidating for an almost 3-year-old when the teacher kicked off the class by having us all stand in a line while she shouted some rhyme at us in Czech. I tried to follow along with the hand motions and feet stomping, but Lydia would have nothing to do with it.

Then we played this game where the teacher put all different colored plastic bottle caps in the middle of the room and she recited a rhyme (something about a stork's head changing colors, I'm told). When she called out a stork's head color the kids had to run and get a bottle cap of that color. I was quite impressed with myself that I could pick out the color word from the whole mess of words she was saying and tell Lydia which one to get... and Lydia actually participated in this one and even smiled on occasion!

The comprehension ended there. Cue the grinning, clueless foreign mommy and her flopping on the floor daughter. We made a very good impression, I'm sure.

We ended the time with some free play... using some slightly outdated wooden gymnastics-like equipment they constructed some slides, tunnels and swinging rings. I didn't think a camera would be appropriate, but it turns out it would've been fine. (Although looking back, I don't think I want a record of my darling daughter's antics). We'll give it one more week and hope for a more cooperative little American girl... if we give it another go, I'll get some pics.


Before we left in the morning... Lydia sporting her new exercise pants. Her cooperation with the camera should've been my first clue that I was in for an uphill battle. This is actually the position Lydia assumed for most of the Sokol.