Activities

I love the fact that I am a full time mom. One of the reasons is that it gives me the opportunity to take my kids to different activities. There is so much on offer it's hard not to get carried away and do too much. I've tried to pick a variety of activities not only that I think are worthwhile but also that the boys enjoy. At the end of last term all the activities had some sort of show session and presented the kids with medals, badges and/or certificates. It created a lot of excitement indeed!

Swimming is a must in our family. Nicholas does his lessons at Putney Leisure Centre and Daniel goes to Water Babies. Nicholas is a real swimming super star. The swimming teacher called him fish one day and he proudly told her that he is actually a shark. He is not the best in his class but he is by far the youngest (the others are at least 1 if not 2 years older than him). To me it's amazing to see him do 'real' swimming especially when he succeeds to do 10m unassisted. Daniel loves the water as much as Nicholas does. He is totally fearless and very happy to fling himself off the side and go under water. I'm so happy I have two little sharks!

The Little Gym is absolutely awesome. It ticks all the boxes when it comes to physical development and it is so good for their social skills too. It's amazing how Nicholas' confidence and skills have developed over the last year and a half. Daniel recently started just after his first birthday and already enthusiastically tries everything on offer. Both boys really benefit, in many ways, from The Little Gym!

Playball is also fantastic. It covers the basics of all ball sports and teaches things like balance, focus, perseverance, team work etc. Nicholas has improved so much since he started and he got a glowing report not to mention the floating trophy a few times. Unfortunately Danny has to wait until he is 2 years old before he can start but for now he is happy playing around on the sideline. Being South African this kind of exposure to sport is very important to us!

Last term we did football. It was a bit of a mixed bag. Some days Nicholas loved it and some days he hated it. It might have something to do with the fact that most of the boys were bigger, better and rougher than him but I'm not exactly sure what the problem was. We've decided to try Rugby Tots this term instead. Maybe since dad likes to watch it on tv so much he'll be more enthusiastic about it. It's only been a few weeks and so far so good. As usual Daniel is happy playing around on the sideline but I find that even that is good for him. This is something special for Dad to do with the boys!

Rhyme Time is my favourite choice for music. It is a cheerful and relaxed class where the kids get to learn rhymes and songs, play with instruments and even do some dancing. It's great because I can take both boys at the same time. Nicholas is starting to get a bit old for it now though so we did a few trials of other music classes and in the end Nicholas said he liked Rhyme Time best of all. Danny is at the perfect age and gets a lot out of the classes so it is definitely the best option for him. Music makes us smile!

I composed this post in August so most of the photos are from 2 or 3 months ago. It's not always easy and often not allowed to take photos in the actual activities. I stumbled across this cute video clip that I sneaked of Nicholas at Rhyme Time singing one of his all time favourite songs (taken in December 2009).