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What are your favourite baby groups/activities
Having recently started taking P to her first baby groups (rhyme & sign and swimming) I was just wondering which groups you ladies have been to and would recommend?
P loved swimming and tolerated rhyme & sign (she is only 15 weeks and think she will enjoy it more as she gets older).
What have you found good or worth going to?
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Tumble tots was a great one for us once Aaron was walking. Also specific toddler groups as you then get a chance to chat to mums rather than doing stuff like the other groups.we also went to baby massage but i wasnt really a fan
It's worth just going to as many as you can to see what you like. Baby massage was a good one here as there was opportunity to chat before and after the actual massaging, baby sensory was good in a similar way. But they'll be run differently in different classes. I asked our HV what was available in our local area and there were a few free music groups and things which def helped me make mummy friends who I'm still close to and our kids are now good friends.
My favourite day was baby cinema, but that was partly because we then went for lunch and it was just a lovely chance to catch up. We did loads of things - baby yoga; baby swimming; baby cinema; general baby groups; baby massage; munchkin music. We didn't get on with sing & sign for some reason. This time around i can't wait to try baby sensory as heard loads of good things last time but there wasn't one locally, now there is so I'm looking forward to that.
With Zoe I went to loads of groups and classes from around 3 weeks. This time around I am just enjoying the fac that Orla is content to lay on the floor looking at me and we are doing very little. We start swimming tomorrow and do baby cinema / baby group one day a week.
Good thread, especially for a first timer to get some ideas. Where do you all find out about available classes, other than the ones you already knew you were interested in and perhaps actively looked for them (like swimming)?
Baby sensory was great
We now do gym tots, various playgroups and Jo jingles music class
With A we only do two classes as there's not much available where I live. We do a music class which is great, but hippy-ish and lots of 'free expression'
but I love it as they have real instruments that the children can use, mixed ages and the teachers are genuinely musical. We also go to a French speaking gym class which is good too.
With N I tried anything and everything, we stuck with toddler groups and Jo Jingles and I took him swimming when he wasn't enrolled in water babies. He needed somewhere he could have free reign and didn't like instruction, he wanted to do his own thing, whereas A seems more interactive with the class.
I used to like to taking the girls to baby rhyme time at our local library. It was free and you could just turn up, have a sing (or sometimes just a feed)! and then we'd either go for coffee or the shops or just home. It was an early start (9.30 I think) but it got us out of the house and by the time we'd walked there and home it took up most of the morning. I think most libraries do them.
My favourite is baby massage for littlies but I'm bias as I teach it!
We still do toddlers on Fridays now L is 3.5, if I'm honest he's to big for it but I'm on the committee and will be back next year with the new baby so ill probably just keep coming. I did The free music class in the library with CK and Ally a few times which was good. My H took A to gymnastics when she was 18-24 months but they put the price up to something rediculous like £8 a session for 30 mins and wouldn't let him have L there so he stopped.
We've never done a swimming class but I'd like to try one with number 3.
I went to a breast feeding group in the doctors surgery and met some friends that I still see regularly now 5 years later. It was a great group but I suspect it was the people that made it as I went back when L was tiny and it wasnt as good. Ill to again with no 3 though and try it out.
I think a lot of groups are as much for parents as they are for babies.
we did Sing and Sign
and baby boppers- local singing and dancing with puppets and props. great fun on a winters morning. woke me up!
I found the iunstructed drop in sessions at the children's centre and local village halls too difficult to attend with Luke because of his medical tubing.