If you’re finding that your little one needs some extra stimulation and socialisation, have you considered attending a group, club or class?

Most towns will have a great selection of places to take your little one for a reasonable price. We’ve asked the parents in our online community for suggestions for;

Small babies & younger toddlers
Older toddlers
Children

We hope that this helps to inspire you in your search for exciting activities.

Small babies & toddlers

Smaller babies and toddlers need more hands-on activities with you present to support them; this is also a fantastic bonding opportunity, and a great way to spend your maternity leave! The following ideas were suggested to us by our community; we’ve found that the best place to find sessions local to you is to search Facebook as community groups & pages often advertise these sessions. Asking local mummies is also a great way to find a session.

Baby sensory classes
Baby yoga
Baby Massage
Messy play sessions
Messy arts & crafts sessions
Music sessions
Water babies

Shaz Rafferty at Zebra Mumma shared her baby sensory class experience with us here! It’s well worth a read.

Older toddlers

With older toddlers, you can often sit down with a cuppa and have a chat with the other parents whilst your child runs around enjoying the session with other children. I used to love this after not having had much adult interaction for a while! The best suggestions we’ve had from our community are;

Messy Play
Arts & crafts
Music
Dance classes tailored to younger kids
Gymnastics beginner sessions
Football & rugby beginner sessions
Pony riding
Swimming classes

Karen Dennis from The Next Best Thing To Mummy has shared some horse & pony tips with us here!

Children

There are so many fabulous choices for children in terms of clubs, classes and groups once they become more physically advanced! Many of these are also available after school, which makes them a lot more convenient. I found that most baby and toddler sessions ran when I was working and my son was at nursery, which was disappointing. We really love these class/club/group ideas for children as they’re all activities that can become a lifelong passion & hobby, or even a career if they’re particularly talented!

Join a local football or rugby team
Cooking classes for kids
Tennis
Badminton
Hockey
Basketball
Horse riding
Swimming classes
Dance
Gymnastics
Acrobatics
Art classes
Learning an instrument
Scouts
Cubs
Brownies
Beavers

Siobhan Butel over at Mum Malarkey has shared this cooking class photo with us – how fun does this look?! It’s also a fantastic life skill to learn!