Earlier this year junior and I discovered the 'joys' of Gymboree, while I found the all singing all dancing all American garish style a little off putting, my little one loved all the sponge and wooden ladders and bridges to climb on and under. When I came across Toddler Sense in South Park, Reigate I was delighted as it seemed similar. I was feeling energetic (this is a steadily decreasing incline until my lunchtime coffee) so headed off on foot, reliably informed that the journey was only 30-40mins. What my phone didn't mention, was that this was mostly uphill (yes, I'm learning this is what Reigate is all about). So when we finally arrived, all I was thinking was about the walk home. On entering the class junior was confronted with quite loud, upbeat music and disco lights, which was a little much for him so he was quite clingy and mostly stayed standing on top of a wooden bridge, surveying the multi-coloured medley of activity around him. The class was truly focussed on the senses, with music, bubbles, shakers and sparkly cheerleaders pompoms which I've never seen at a baby group before and were a huge hit! Our journey home (with one bus per hour, which broke down so I had to wait for a cab with a frustrated, tired toddler) means that until we have a car we won't be signing up. The class was very much focussed on the senses rather than concrete skills learning, so I feel junior wasn't especially challenged but it was good fun nevertheless.
Junior loves to dance and as I prefer listening to LBC to Absolute Radio (my other half is the muso) I have been seeking out opportunities to take my little one to strut his stuff. It came to my attention that ballet classes are ten a penny in Reigate and beyond. We are not really football types and I'm all for challenging stereotypes, I thought why not give ballet a go (obviously remaining completely open to junior not liking ballet). We first headed to Dorking for Baby Ballet for a 3 week trial, and he loved it. Perhaps it was our lovely, pretty dance teacher or because the class was small, and full of tutu-ed sedate little girls - possibly the latter. Over the 3 weeks junior learned 'good toes/naughty toes' and learned to go on tip toes, although not necessarily in class. Classes for boys are starting soon!
Sadly the journey to Dorking (without a car) while scenic, is quite long and surprisingly expensive by bus so I started searching closer to home. So we headed to Diddi Dance at The Coleman Redland Centre on a Thursday at 10 and 11. The class was quite busy with slightly older little ones, it was definitely action packed with great variety and plenty of props. Junior decided to shirk the crowd and spent most of the class pushing the chairs around, possibly he was a little overwhelmed by the hyper active boogying nearly 3 year olds. And finally yesterday we tried our first Reigate School of Ballet at The Methodist Church at 10 (new class starting at 10.30!) Junior was not phased by being confronted by a class of 15 little girls and I'm delighted to report he was one of only 3 who actually participate in nearly every activity! While the lesson was less ballet focussed than Baby Ballet, and more about movement to some nursery rhyme classics such as Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. My little one adored this class, I preferred Baby Ballet (also because I like an outing to Dorking) but perhaps for now it is best to focus on fun and movement rather than learning first position.
