The best and worst of the baby groups.

Like all new mums I was really keen (and still am) to take Tiny to lots of different baby groups. This has become increasingly important to me as I’m not sure she will get the opportunity (good, bad or otherwise) to attend nursery until she gets her free hours later on.

I only lasted one term at baby yoga. If I hadn’t had to pay for a term in advance I probably wouldn’t have gone back a second time. I’m more of a drinking wine whilst wearing yoga pants type of person. The class leader was a bit humourless and there wasn’t much of a social aspect (or any tea and biscuits) which was really important for me.

They had to kick us out of Baby Sensory in the end. We went for nearly a year and we loved it. There was so many great activities and props that you wouldn’t normally have access to. We learnt a bunch of new songs and some sign language, and there was free play time so you could catch up with the other mums.

Music with Mummy is the latest group I’ve joined in Devon. This is really good fun. There’s lots of movement and singing, as well as props and dressing up. I’ve met an amazing group of mums through this class – we had our first night out last week! I’d definitely recommend joining a some sort of group that you have to pay for by the term  as you get to see the same faces every week and that makes it easier to make a group of friends.

My favourite baby group of all was Tiny Talk. We started doing Tiny Talk when Tiny about 5 months old and we would still do it if there was a group near us. At first it was just a good group for meeting mums, doing some signing and singing and having a nice cuppa. However, as soon as she began picking up the signs it became really special and gave us another way to communicate. I think she would have picked it up more quickly in the beginning if we’d been better at remembering to practise it at home.

*Bragging mummy alert* Last week Tiny got a certificate for 100 signs from our old Tiny Talk class leader in Watford. I’m so pleased especially as we haven’t attended any classes since June. This is part of the reason why Tiny Talk is so great – it’s not just something that you do for an hour a week. It’s part of our everyday interaction. We try to sign as much as possible with Tiny and when we don’t know a sign for something we look it up. We also watch Mr Tumble together a lot.

We’ve found sign language so useful in avoiding tantrums over not being able to express herself as Tiny is able to sign things that she can’t yet say. It adds that extra clarity when we’re not quite sure what she’s jibber-jabbing about. She does get really frustrated when Granny and Grandpa don’t understand her signs though! It’s so lovely watching her “see, say and sign” things and we’ve found that her language has developed beautifully alongside the signing.

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