Parenthood - 2010-02-12 Baby Sensory End of Term

February 12, 2010

We had our last baby sensory class today.

Baby sensory is an hour long class. It starts with circle time during which we sing songs and have various sensory experiences. Some examples of the things we played with were wind chimes, feathers, and bubbles! We then get to move to the "exploratory area" set up with neat toys specifically chosen for their ability to stimulate the senses (sight, hearing and touch only though). Elizabeth is particularly fond of a little toy radio that lights up and plays cheesy pop music, although she is easily distracted with a strategically placed shaker. Not sure if it's a coincidence that she spends most of her time playing with the kind of toys that Daddy has banned from our house... After the exploratory time we come back to the circle for a few more sensory experiences. We've bounced balls and balloons around on a parachute to Elizabeth's great delight, although she wasn't quite sure what to make of the various glowing blinking balls or the fibre optic glow sticks. We've smacked water around, shaken emergency blankets, felt a variety of fabrics and generally had a lot of fun.

Elizabeth has really been enjoying them so we're hoping to do more classes. She'll turn thirteen months during the next session which is the upper age limit, so we'll see.

If you are in the Ottawa area, a number of libraries are offering sample baby sensory classes for you to try out - check them out!

Monday, February 16th @ 10am - Hazeldean Branch, 50 Castlefrank
Thursday, February 18th @ 10:50am - Emerald Plaza Branch, 1547 Merivale
Monday, February 22nd @ 2pm - St. Laurent Branch, 515 Cote
Tuesday, February 23rd @ 10:15am - Elmvale Acres Branch, 1910 St. Laurent
Thursday, February 25th @ 10:15am - Beaverbrook Branch, 2500 Campeau

On February 18, 2010 at 02:32 am
Marie said:

Those sound like great classes. Exposure to a variety of different things is so good. Why are shakers banned from your house?

On February 18, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Mary said:

Noisy toys are theoretically not allowed, because they are "noisy" (yet somehow we have a dinosaur that roars spontaneously, an exersaucer that plays London Bridge, a giggling raccoon and a ton of rattles). I don't doubt that I'll manage to sneak in a shaker sometime cuz she loves them so much.