I have been choosing many gym trial classes over academic classes because Darius is constantly exposed to ‘teaching’ at home from the learning activities 1,2,3 I do with him.

I wanted something different for him where he can do some music and movement to develop his motor skills because he doesn’t like to move around much or do tummy downs.

After searching and searching, I noticed that most enrichment classes are still more for working parents as their schedules are always on a weekend. The class revolves around the parent bonding with the child because they couldn’t do it during the weekdays.

For us, we don’t need the ‘bonding’ portion because I take care of him all the time while hubby plays with him once he knocks off from work til his bedtime. We are also always with him the whole day during weekends.

Nowadays, he always whines alot from being left seated by himself to play with his toys. He can’t crawl nor stand by himself so he gets bored after a while. His crying and whining was really getting on my nerves and I desperately needed something to keep him occupied.

Initially, I was against going for a class at Growing Up Gifted or Julia Gabriel Learning Centre though I have known about them for a long time. I thought he might be too young to start learning about alphabets in a structured manner. 10 months old going for a class? Will I be stressing him out?

But with this little boy who loves exploring, is curious about everything and constantly wants to examine and learn, I really could not keep him occupied with a bunch of toys. If so, I will have to keep giving him a new toy everyday, or let him explore the house with me behind him all the time. I will never get anything done!

Finally, I decided on GUG, call them up on Wednesday and got a trial on Friday. Everything was really choppity-chop. I really want to get back some sanity during the day by going out somewhere to do something.

Info on GUG

Darius belongs to the ‘Gifted Babes (8 months-18months)’ category. They have classes from Mon to Fri.  For Classes on Mon, Wed, Fri, you can choose from two days out of the three or all three (rates differs). Another class will be on Tues & Thurs. All the classes have fixed timing so you will have to choose the best timing, best before a naptime or he’ll be tired during class and cannot concentrate during the 1.5hrs lesson.

I have to choose the Fri class cos there’s no more space for morning class and the slots for Thurs at 2-3.30pm (clash with naptime), 4-5.30pm (clash with peak hour people knocking off work). Besides, Tuesday is going to in-law’s day.

Thus, I’m left with only Mon, Wed, Fri class which happened to be at 1-2.30pm, after his lunch and before his naptime at 2.45 or 3pm. This was also the time when he’s the most whiney.

So off I went in a taxi to the trial class because of a lot of wrong things happening (dun want to nap, dun want to eat his porridge due to too hot…) I almost couldn’t reach in time! Cost me $18 to reach there when I could have taken MRT. T^T

About the class

As precaution, they have someone to monitor the baby’s temperature before we go through the front door. I wonder why mine’s not monitored?? I had to pay the trial fee first and get a name sticker. No fee waiver if you sign up for the actual class. Trial is trial.

Then, we entered and the teachers immediately checked Darius’ hands and feet and sanitised his hands. They didn’t tell me to sanitise mine too. ^^

"Where am I?"

I left Darius on the mat and went to put my bag, searching for the receipt which I had accidentally left outside. On turning around, I realised that I had just left him alone like what I usually do at home and he’s totally fine sitting by himself surrounded by strangers. There were toys left on the mat so I just passed one to him. I was quite nervous as the people around were mostly helpers with kids and one granny with a kid. I’m the only mother with a small baby. The kids were all toddlers able to walk on their own. They were also looking at us curiously.

Later on, a mother finally joined in with her child, totalling six children. Darius was still the youngest there.

The session started with introducing Darius to the rest and the teachers counting the number of children, writing the number on the board and then drawing 6 objects on the board. They then sang some songs about it.

Darius was very attentive as he kept staring at the cheery teachers. He wasn’t as participative yet since he just woke up from the taxi-nap.

There was also a ‘Hello’ song in different languages. All these while, we helped the child to do hand movements following the songs. We also got to do some movement exercises, swinging the child in the air according to the music. Darius loves this because I happen to do this type of exercise daily with him.

With all the warm up, the academic part came in. They started with this thing called ‘character building’ which they introduced the children to objects in the water. Darius got to pick up pebbles, cork, marbles from the water and drop it back in. He had no problem with it at all since he just loves examining anything in sight. Some of the children have to be helped by their helper to pick up things. He learned to observe that the cork floats and the marble sinks.

Later, the teachers introduced the alphabet of the day which was ‘S’. It was interesting in that they showed a toy snake, making it kiss on every child’s cheek and the teacher also drew a snake on the child’s legs or hands. They also introduced stars and sang the Twinkle Twinkle song.

The interesting part came when they finally did the GUG-famous Zoophonics recital. It’s A-Z in a song with cute movements and phonic sounds which the parents can learn and do with the child.

Amidst the singing, Darius suddenly gave a little chuckle, ‘he he’. The 2 teachers grinned during their singing.

They make more funny sounds. Darius laughed out loud this time.

The people around us started laughing with him, me too.

Then, as the teachers continued til letter Z, Darius just kept laughing each time they did their funny sound after singing about the alphabet. He suddenly turned energetic and very happy. The teachers couldn’t help laughing and singing at the same time.

After the song, they even asked me, “Is this his first time in class?” with astonishment. I replied, “Yes!”  I was amazed and amused by his reaction too. I didn’t understand then.

Now I recall that he’s always smiling at me when I make animal sounds for the cow, goat, chicken or object sounds during feeding time. Maybe he’s tickled by their funny sounds too.

There was a short break where we can give our children water or snacks seated around a table and do some interaction.

After the break was the Mandarin class for 15 mins and the chinese language teacher was bubbly too. Darius was given some scarves in both hands and we walked around in a circle, with me holding his hands while swinging the scarves like a butterfly. He really loves this activity as he kept smiling non-stop, swinging them up and down (he just loves walking!). He even refused to let go of the scarves to give back to the teacher.

I think the #1 reason why I was not afraid to let Darius join this class of toddlers is that he can step steadily! Yes, it’s important as we need to move around in a circle, walking or running along to the music. If he still can’t do this, he will be left sitting down staring at the others. I realised also that he’s quite a big baby as his height/size at 10 months old was even comparable to the walking toddlers in the class.

Finally, we had craft time and Darius was given some dough to play with. He examined it himself by moving it from one palm to another constantly, flipping and pulling which according to the teachers is good for his fingers development. Then, the dough was pressed onto a plate and we helped him place his foot on it to get a print. The teacher helped to pour some glitter and named the plate.

A few kids were crying when given the dough and asked to step on it. They just refused to deal with the sticky thing. I’m so glad Darius is inquisitive and not afraid to get his hands/legs dirty. He even did it twice as we did not get a good print the first time.

Finally, time for goodbyes and songs again. The teacher liked Darius so much that for the goodbye hug, she swinged him high in the air and made funny faces at him to get him to laugh.

Overall, Darius really seemed to enjoy the class a lot and I can be sure that my money will not be wasted since he’s so attentive unlike a lot of other babies his age. I was glad that he wasn’t cranky even though he skipped lunch and a morning nap. Let’s hope he stays this way!

This class also met my objectives for an enrichment class during weekdays:
- go somewhere out of the house to do some activity for breath of fresh air.
- keep him occupied with something useful so he can stop whining from boredom
- socialise and meet other children
- learn about different objects, texture, do crafts with materials that I can’t provide at home
- have some music & movement time.

Therefore, I signed him up straight after the class for the rest of the term til 12th June with his fees pro-rated for 8 lessons.  A nice bag was given to us with a Parent’s handbook. May we have fun ahead!

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