If you are anything like me it is likely that your baby has a better social life than you! My girls both went to a number of different groups right from when they were tiny. I often get asked what baby clubs I did with them when they were little so I thought I would share some of my favourites and as always please do let us know what you have been up to.
Can I start by saying that as a new mum these groups are often a great way to make new friends in your area. I didn’t know anyone in my village when I had Molly and if I hadn’t joined the local groups I don’t think I would have made the friends I have today. Don’t be afraid to talk to people and it’s a great excuse to head for a coffee afterwards.
Rhythm Time
One of the favourite classes that we have always done is Rhythm Time. Kind of a music and singing class that the girls have always adored. In fact we still go now and Molly is nearly 5. That’s a lot of Rhythm Time classes. I love the relaxed feel of it. It’s not pretentious or cringeworthy. Just lots of fun little songs. At the start of the term you get a CD that you can play to the kids and as they get older they have always enjoyed singing along. As babies it was more about little songs, pulse work, rocking and movement. Plus some lovely bubble time at the end which teeny one’s love. They can start from 12 weeks so you should just about be feeling ready to get out and about properly by then. It’s a franchise so there is most likely to be some near to you.
Baby Sensory
On a similar note we did try a couple of Baby Sensory classes. Very similar in terms of lots of music and fun play time. They have different themes most weeks and I see many a photo of friends babies as astronauts or bumble bees! For some reason I just preferred Rhythm Time and it seemed silly to pay for two music based classes. Lolly did Baby Sensory though with Hector though and loved it.
Swimming
When Molly was tiny I took her to swimming lessons. I think I started as soon as she had had her injections. Many people I know join Water Babies but we were lucky that the school near me has a swimming pool and ran swimming lessons so we went there. Make sure you pick somewhere that has a heated pool to quite a warm temperature for the little ones (and you!). I was amazed how quickly Molly picked things up at such a young ages. Kicking her legs and being dunked. Sadly I only managed a couple of terms as I was retuning to work and the days just didn’t work out. I am always very jealous when I see pictures of teeny babies swimming underwater unaided. Utterly amazing. When Alice was born the swimming just wasn’t possible. I couldn’t possibly go in a pool and leave a 20 month old Molly sat on the side. And so Alice didn’t go. Molly has just started up lessons again now and I can honestly say she is just the same as other children who have been going for years. We go swimming with the girls ourselves and they love the water so I think that helps a lot.
Mother & Toddler
Mother & Toddler groups are normally more low key and relaxed than organised classes. Think a group of mums and babies getting together in sort of a big play date. The one by me was in the village hall and involved lots of toys, children toddling round and the mums having a much needed natter. You can normally find one in your local area so it’s worth an ask around or check out listings or notice boards at local village halls or sports centres.
Baby Massage
I never went to baby massage but both Becky and Lolly did and can’t rate it highly enough. The classes teach you to use massage and touch points as a way of communicating with and soothing your baby. It can also help ease digestion and aid sleep (or so they say!). NCT offers courses, as do Mama Baby Bliss, or a quick google search should find some private ones in your local area.
Baby Yoga
I never did baby yoga but given how much I love a sun salute myself I’m thinking perhaps I should have given it a try. A lot of the classes include an element of Baby Massage so could be a good combination class to try. Again it is good for bonding and calming your baby. Yoga Bellies offer a great range of classes in different areas.
Dance Classes
Molly has just started a dance class. She LOVES it. I only wish I had started it earlier. She does a mixture of ballet and modern dance but there are so many classes for toddlers that basically involve silly dancing to their favourite songs. I take Alice to a dance class called ‘Jitter Bugs‘ which is local to me. She has so much fun and it involves lots of jumping and twirling which is great with her. I also like this one as I can pay as I go, as well as block booking if I prefer, which suits me as it is on a day that I often end up having meetings and therefore wouldn’t be able to go. Diddi Dance has classes across the country.
Gymnastics
As a child myself I always remember going to see my cousins and being so envious of their Tumble Tots t-shirts. This magical gymnastics class that we didn’t have by us. I love that 30 something years later it is still going strong and they still have yellow t-shirts! There are a variety of classes form 6 months onwards and your littles can jump and play to their hearts content. I rather think I would like to join in myself.
Start Your Own
If there is nothing you fancy doing then why not start your own club? A group of girls in my village (who I met through Rhythm Time) very quickly set up what we still refer to as ‘Baby Club’. Every Monday morning we would meet up, drink tea and gossip whilst simultaneously feeding and cuddling babies. Then as the babies got older it was a case of keeping an eye on rampaging toddlers and now (five years on) we get to relax whilst the kids amuse themselves. We take it in turns to host each week so it’s only every couple of months that you have a group descend on you. We sometimes do baby club outings for the kids or baby club dinners out for the mums. I can honestly say it was my absolute favourite club I attended!
What baby clubs do you do with your little one? Are there any great classes that we should all know about?
Image by Anna Clarke Photography.
We live opposite the local swimming pool and have had to abandon classes since I returned to work too so I’m pleased to read Molly is at the same level as others that were doing water babies! The local classes weren’t as good as water babies as the class ages were 0-4 rather than levels according to ability but it was mainly splashing about and singing anyway. Water babies here in London is eye wateringly expensive, about £16 a class, so we abandoned those pretty early. Our local pool let us take water proof cameras in when the pool was empty and we did our own underwater photos!!
I tried baby sensory but the teacher was going off on maternity leave so loads of us ended up having our own circle at someone’s house where we would get out the disco ball, space blankets, musical toys and bubbles. Much cheaper than £9 a session and the babies loved it. It’s harder once they start to move though.
I think early on its important to get out so we did a weekly NCT coffee morning in a local bookshop (free), an NCT stop and play (£2) and some church playgroups with no religious input (50p). We only really did proper classes like music and toddler gymnastics from about 6-9 months once she had started moving and I felt like she got something out of it.
We did try Baby Yoga (of course, this is middle class North London don’t you know) but I was never really one for yoga and only went whilst pregnant to buy friends. So we abandoned that pretty sharpish too. The teacher lost me at healthy special dark chocolate as a ‘breastfeeding treat’. Urrrr what’s wrong with Cadburys buttons?!
I love your own Baby Sensory class idea. Such a good one. I’m hoping the mums all joined in with the disco balls and some cheesy tunes too! I think its perfect as in truth most of these classes are more for your sanity than anything else so a group of friends, a bit of fun for the babies, and a lot of tea drinking is the perfect combination. And no, dark chocolate is not a treat. Give me Cadburys any day. Also, who ever said you only need one square of dark chocolate as it’s so rich. I could eat a whole Bar of Lindt sea salt dark chocolate. Anyway, I digress…. xx
Space blankets for the win. 29p from Amazon and we still use ours to make dens under the kitchen table.
It’s funny, I know so many people who really struggled with the ‘mum dating’ thing but actually, it’s the first thing I felt really good at for ages. I’m destined for a life on the PTA.
Also local libraries do great rhyme time classes for free. I found these really good to subtly watch all the childminders who attended and suss out who I thought was good and who was ummm…. not.
I also found the website OllyOlly brilliant for London Mum stuff. A daily breakdown by postcode and time as to stuff on in your area and whether it’s free or not. Worth a look
You are going to be ace on the PTA Rebecca! Can you come and run ours?! Our local library is good for classes too but I had never thought of the whole childminder element. Excellent idea!! xx
We have done loads- baby sensory I wasn’t impressed by for the money but perhaps that was the teacher rather than the content, hartbeeps is national and very good, we have started folk nursery rhymes near to us which is a lady on a guitar singing and the babies/toddlers love it. We did Tiny Talk which is baby sign and is great- to be honest I don’t use sign enough at home for him to pick it up but it’s a lovely class and they give out tea and biscuits- what is not to love? Our local children’s centre is brilliant and free so worth checking those out. We did a free 6 week yoga and massage course through them and it was brilliant- I do a little massage every night before bed and I think it really relaxes Noah. We did a term of swimming which was lovely but just too expensive so we will wait until he’s older now. My NCT group get together weekly and now the babies are older we go on days out or play dates at each other’s houses. I started classes very early (about 6 weeks) as a way to structure my day and to get out and I’d be a bit lost without them!
I never really went to our Childrens centre Anna but thinking perhaps I should have. Free classes sound a great idea. I definitely agree that it structures your day. Our get together and the classes I did were a lifesaver in the early days. xx
We found that the ones run by our local children’s centre were good- and by donating each time you go you are earning a little karma! We went to their Bumps to Babies almost every week and it was a lifesaver at the beginning as a breastfeeding counsellor was on hand ready to help, but never judge. We’ve now graduated to their Toddle Tastic!
Swimming we did from about 16 weeks to 9 months, but we are having a break- Water Babies is super expensive here too (Devon) and the local pool had a lovely toasty hydrotherapy pool so the littles are in there.
There is an amazing Pony Playgroup here- it’s so brilliant for littles that can walk- you groom, do activities, sing, stroke, draw and if big enough have a little ride. At £7 it’s expensive ish but that’s not bad for an hour and a half and a fraction of riding lessons.
I can’t wait for Silvia to turn 2 so she can start Rugby Tots! She loves to play with a rugby ball already and is very rough and tumble- only a year to wait.
I need Pony Playgroup in my life. Or more to the point Molly does. That sounds AMAZING. I’m avoiding lessons for as long as I can due to the cost but I have a feeling it won’t be long. I’m lucky that some of my ‘baby club’ friends have ponies so at our weekly get togethers Molly does get to have a little ride which she adores. Also, big yes to Rugby Tots. My husband would so be up for taking the girls to this. xxx
Where are you holidaying in Devon? It’s run at the East Devon Riding Academy by a lovely lady called Natalie so is just on the way down if you’re heading further west? Every Friday morning.
We are heading near salcombe but we may need to make a detour! Xx
I gave up on all those clubs early on. I hated them and I’m usually a social animal! I had a very wriggly baby and used to spend half my time chasing him rather than doing the activities. Used to make me feel a bit useless when all the other mummies were sat with their babies all calm and I was a sweaty mess. Also found them a bit click. I did however love water Babies. Think because he could splash about it was a bit easier and for me it was like floating in a spa pool for half an hour a week.
My main advice is before the age of 1ish, the groups are equally for the Mums as much as they are the baby – so do something you enjoy too, with people you like; your baby won’t miss anything if you drop a class you’re not gelling with.
I’m not antisocial but I really can’t be doing with all the baby talk you get in the early stages with those classes, so I quite rapidly dropped them (didn’t see the HV at their weighing clinic either, bad mummy!). This time around we’re doing very little for the baby but Juliet is carrying on with her classes – ballet and swimming. Gets us out of the house, the baby gets admired, I get my adult company and the 3.5yr old gets worn out for bedtime. Win!
Just popped over from Rock My Wedding – how tiny does Elle look?! 🙁 Waaaaahhhhh!
Anyway, I agree with the comments above – MAKE THE MOST OF IT while you can sit and drink warm drinks and eat cake before coffee shops look at you with disdain when you all rock up with your strollers and grumpy toddlers.
Like Lottie, my NCT friends and I used to have weekly coffee mornings at each others houses and take cakes with us! We still try to have a monthly brunch on a Sunday, but it’s not the same with the little lunatics running around.
We did do massage, and I liked what I learnt from the class, but it clashed with Elle’s nap time and I was always terrified she’d just kick off and then I’d have paid money to sit and breastfeed her in room full of screaming babies when I could have just stayed on the sofa for free!
So if it’s a toss up between coffee and cake and a baby class – go with coffee and cake 😉
x
Loved this post and was very pleased to see that we do/have done most of these ‘standard’ groups despite living in deepest darkest Herefordshire! Yes we have to drive a little while but that’s our own fault for living in the sticks ? My little one is two in a fortnight and we have just got home from a wonderful morning exploring the woods at Wildplay (basically a toddler version of Forest School)-would def recommend looking if you have access to something like this esp if your littlie enjoyed getting messy and being outdoors. Think I enjoy it as much as Austin which like people have said above is a definite plus!
When Isaac was little we used to go to various groups. I liked the pay as you go ones because I didn’t have to commit so wouldn’t matter if we weren’t feeling it that day. Swimming was great, as was Gym Tots (our local gymnastics club). We tried Baby Signing, which was ok, and Jiggy Wrigglers was a great music and song group.
The best thing I found was my group of mummies that I met through pregnancy Pilates. We’re still meeting up every week for what is now called Tuesday Club. Some of the mums are on baby round two. We do all sorts together including baby days out to the zoo, park or round each others houses. We’ve even gone so far as organising parents only evenings so we can have baby free chats.
The most important thing for me doing these groups was to meet other mums as it can feel a bit of a lonely time in those early weeks / months. Amy xx
I’ve never been to a baby group ? We travelled a lot when Arianne was wee, my husband took his sabbatical from work and we lived in our little one-miracle-child-bubble together. Then Effie came along and because I had never done the classes, I didn’t miss them.
We swim as a family every week, Arianne&Effie can swim unaided and the twins are super happy in water so if you can’t get to Water Babies or whatever, don’t fret. Plenty of time in the water with confident parents is ace too.
I’m a walking encyclopedia for classes for toddlers, mind you. Or money pits, as my husband calls them ? Gymnastics gets a mega yes, ballet nice but I think my girls are more street dance iykwim ? Rugby Tots gutted to say we didn’t love it, ice-skating is a huge hit, Art Club obviously perfect – basically just making a mess with other people clearing up the mess!
What age did you start ballet? They seem to take it super seriously around here so its age 3 and up?
Mum&baby classes start from 18m here, then they do it ‘by themselves’ as it were from 3y from what I can tell.
I started ballet at 3 and loved it
Ice skating is SO worth it. I had lessons as a tiny and it’s a serious life skill to be able to just pop skates on and off you go without clinging to the wall- genius!