Has anyone ever gone to this, is it any good??

Abbie had her 18 months assesment last week. The HV said she was advanced for her age and is on par with a 2.5 year old .

However, she seem to think she could be borderline hyperactive. For those of you who know and have met Abbie, this will come of no surprise!! LOL

She said it doesn't officially get diagnosed until they are around 4/5 yr old, but she is showing all the usual signs!! She wants to see her again in a few months, and said in the meantime I need to try channel her enegry into something structured and suggested this. I have looked and there is a class nearby, but it looks to be quite costy, joining fees, paying for the term up front, uniform etc. So before I even ring and ask I wanted to know what it was like.

I am worried that I am going to be met with a bunch of pushy parents insisting their toddler gets the moves absolutely right etc!! LOL
xx

Abbie!! clever girl!!

but at the 'borderline hyperactive' comment!! Everytime I post about Hannah's adventures on fb people tell me how she reminds them of Abbie eek! It could just be though hun that she needs extra challenges - she is obviously a very intelligent little girl and very advanced for her age so needs that extra stimulation to channel her energy. Baby ballet would probably be good - but if she's anything like Hannah I think baby rugby might be a better bet

Sorry hun - I have no experience of ballet other than going to pick up my friends little girl with her and they were all really snobby and pushy, parked outside in their 4x4s and BMWs

xx

You see that's what I'm afraid of, I want her to focus and learn to do it but at the same time I want her to be able to explore and be a toddler. I wonder if they do a baby rugby near me!!!!

Debs - I see Abbie in Hannah soo much, even her expressions when she is doing something, you can see the mischief in her eyes!! LOL

I went to check on Abbie the other night and the little monkey had rearranged all the drawers and taken out all the ironed clothes and screwed them up into other drawers. She had unpaired all her socks and lined them up on the one cot side that is still up (Must get that taken down!), taken off her nappy thrown it on the floor and was cuddling her PJ bottoms.....this was a few days after OH found half a felt tip pen stuck up her nose!!

oooh what about baby gymnastics!? haha I guess any structured acitivty would be good for her, so Id just try and find the cheapest

I am sat here LMAO at that hun but at the same time thinking OMFG that is gonna be me soon

Hannah has had 'mischief' (or 'little sod') written all over her since the day she was born . She is constantly on the go and you can see her little brain working over time figuring things out - she doesn't miss a trick. She actually amazes me everyday with what she picks up and learns - I don't know if it's a general 2nd kid thing and they learn from the older ones or she is just a bright little button who, like Abbie, is gonna need that extra bit of stimulation and challenge?

I nap time

xx

Jade wrote:

oooh what about baby gymnastics!? haha I guess any structured acitivty would be good for her, so Id just try and find the cheapest

I think baby gymnastics is a fab idea - it would be more up Hannah's street than ballet i think. I'm going to look for a class to take Hannah to when Thomas starts nursery in jan so she will be about Abbies age then.

xx

I think ballet is "ok" but probably not as energetic or fun as gymnastics!

If I had to choose Id rather do gymnastics anyway

Jade - that's an idea, i'll look into that, I think I vito'd the ballet now. Somehow I can't see Abbie gracefully gliding along the floor...more like and elephant in a tutu!!!

I love nap times too...though Abbie is now deciding she doesn't want one now during the day !!!! I wondered if it was the 2nd child thing, as Lottie was similar, but no way as much of a handful. You have to be about 5 steps ahead of them....and very fast!!! I don't think twice now about going into someones house and moveing stuff she can/touch/play/climb/break..when we go to my Nans house, she has already started moving the glass vases off the table out of her way herself and passing them to my Nan!!

Some form of dance class i think would be good for her. The reason i say this is although baby gym is good dance requires a little more thinking.

i hope you get what i mean.

but if you do go baby gym/toddler gym aim for a higher age class. When we go Rowan currently goes with 3-4 year olds as his current age group bores him!

gymnastics sounds awesome...i have a friend from sing and sign and her 16 month old daughter goes to baby ballet and loves it - it doesn't sound quite as strict and structured as i imagined at first! maybe if you are interested go along for a test run, im sure they would allow you to have a look at a class before shelling out

What about tumble tots?

Sophia goes and absolutely loves it! Its just a session with lots of equipment out to climb on, up, down, over, and roll on. Then they have a hand eye coordination activity then htey have songs, then more climbing etc then songs at the end.

Have a look at the link below to find your local class. If there is a calss near you, you can book a trial session, which is free if you decide to join. The classes cost £6 a sessiona nd they perfer a tem up front but also membership for £21 which lasts a year. Not sure if that sounds pricey or not, but I thought it did but then when i saw how much she loved it it was worth it. And it was better than the £45 for four sessions and £24 yearly membership for their rivl Gymboree!

The staff are nice, not pushy in any way and the parents I have met so far are lovely. ITs a relaxed atmosphere and very active so I reckon if she needs something active it would be perfect!

Links: http://www.tumbletots.com/find-your-local-centre.php

Or gymboree, more expensive but slightly more structured and a bit more sophisticated. Parents at this seemed more on the snobby side but as not competitive not too bad:

http://www.gymboree-uk.com/find.php

Hope that helps,

Mandy xx

We did a 3 week trial of baby ballet with Andrew (got to take Sophie too for free so bonus!) it was 10 pound for a three wee trial. It was ok, andrew enjoyed it but it fell at nap time so he actually fell asleep in one lesson and refused to join in another lol. Found it very repetitive, they did the same thing 3 weeks in a row when we did it can imagine if they did the same thing for a full term Abbie might get bored? The mums at ours weren't snobby and didn't push their kids to dance lol you also don't have to buy the outfit etc.

They do gym minis around here so the might by you too? Cheaper than ballet!

its deffo a 2nd child thing, dita has that glint i. her eyes too n just looks for troublea!

I'd go for a modern dance class maybe. I've just started looking into this for Immi, she's a right hyper monkey too and theres no way I can see her in a tutu doing anything graceful

I found this website, it's linked with little kickers, which Gill recommended... http://www.littledanceflavourz.co.uk/

I hope its not a second kid thing i could do without anther stunt baby. Baby gym is great i gotta start taking c again as i stopped towards end of pregnancy but its a god mix of structure and free play. Lemme know if you get any info on baby ballet and what its like as C fish is desperate to be a belly dancer (ballet to you and me)

Im also a user off tumbletots its helped Callum out alot but its only 45mins long with a good 10-15mins sing song so not sure if that would be enough for Abbie x

Awww bless C wanting to be a 'belly dancer'!! LOL

I'm gonna have a look at the baby gym thing. I've juist signed up to a gym that do all kinds of family activities so hopefully they may do something for her for no extra costs etc. Do you think swimming might be good way to burn off energy?? I'm thinking as Lottie starts school in sept, it will be that little bit easier and cheaper do some activities with Abbie
xx

Hiya hun!

Isla goes to babyballet & tumbletots, and she enjoys them both, but I would say both of them are more 'structured' activities rather than burning off energy.

At babyballet Isla does look like a baby elephant flapping an imaginary pair of wings!!!! I swapped my class, as the first class had a load of pompus woman with their iphones out planning their lunches together, and completely ignoring the kids!! So i moved to a diff class where everyone is great, and hardly any wearthe uniform (which isnt compulsory).

Im considering littlekickers at the end of her tumbletots session this time, as I find the class a little repetitive, and i think the babyballet probably gets her running about a bit more.