Yesterday while we were out with Doug we happened upon a Little Gym. For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, it's a gym for children (shocking, I know). I went in with Doug and they were having their class for babies four to ten months old. Their parents and teachers were helping them roll, flip and do other various gross motor sorts of things. One little girl was crawling around on the floor as Doug watched her intently. If he could have talked I'm sure he would have said "DUDE! No one told me that my people were mobile!".
So, we (mainly me) are thinking of enrolling Doug in some sort of class some where. The Little Gym we visited was about 30 minutes from our house, if traffic is good. There doesn't seem to be another one closer. It's also a hell of a commitment for a 4 month old. The semester runs 20 weeks, which is definitely longer than a college semester. The price is...ok. They have two opportunities a week to attend class, with the second one being 'free'. It works out to be about $10 a class if you go to all twenty classes. I'd like to be able to go some where that we could pay per the class, at least for a while. I'm not sure how Doug will like it, how I'll feel and how the timing of the class will be. I don't want to take Doug to class if he's going to be hungry.
When I pitched the idea of a class to Jeff, he was not exactly on board. I believe he told me that I could take Doug to the free class and then do whatever it was they did at home. Which is true, I could. I've done enough with the infant/toddler set to be able to make up my own activities for us to do. But the activities are just part of the point of this. I'd like our weeks to have a little more structure. I'm not used to spending this much time with a child unstructured! Also, Doug and I need to get out more. Thirdly, I'd like to start to socialize the little beast!
So I'll do some research and some shopping around and see what I come up with. Any suggestions?
Did you start up your BlogFrog community yet? I think the folks there could weigh in and suggest some classes for you! I obviously cannot -- but I will keep my ears peeled :)
ReplyDeleteYour library probably has free baby story times with songs, books, and stories. There may be an "under 2" or "3 and under" group especially for babies. You can even shop around to see which children's library (or librarian) you like the most. It could vary by branch or county. Children's librarians can be extremely fantastic. They can also know the answer to this question. If they rock.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a gym**boree (**inserted so as not to pimp out a place I've never been to and can't vouch for) in Columbia. I know zip about them. I do not have a baby. I have not taken my baby (or any one else's) to them. They could suck. They could expensively suck. But they are another baby gym. And you can probably use their name to help you research other similar places...