Grow Time

Come and join us at Wonderland Coffee at Linc church for the first mom and babies group💛

TUESDAY TIP: Playing with pom poms is a fun way to work on fine grasping with little fingers as well as fine motor coordination. Post them into holes in boxes or attach them to pieces of velcro. Pom poms come in lots of different sizes and colours so you can be really creative when making up pom pom activities.

What a fun morning at GrowTime Tumble Time group playing bubbles, messy play, posting and music 💚💚

TUESDAY TIP: A game both babies and toddlers love - wind thick tape (clear masking tape works really well) around two points in a room so that the sticky side faces out. Stick plastic balls onto the tape and get your kiddies to pull them off one by one. By playing with the height of the tape this can be a fun activity to practice sitting or standing balance.

Tuesday Tip: Posting is a great activity for little fingers to improve co-ordination and fine motor manipulation skills. What’s great about posting is you can grade the activity based on the age of the child - bigger items for under 1’s getting smaller and smaller for our toddlers. Try posting soft balls into a large hole cut in a box with your baby moving onto posting blocks, straws and lollipop sticks and then finally small coins into a thin hole like this piggy bank.

TUESDAY TIP: Grab some musical instruments and bang, crash and shake along to background songs with your little one. Musical instruments can be played with and enjoyed by your babies to your toddlers. It’s a great way to develop attention, language and bilateral and fine motor co-ordination and creates an opportunity to engage and play with your child.

It was all about ANIMALS at our 2 year old group this week 🐘🦏🐆🐅🦒🦓🐊

TUESDAY TIP: Using small tongs to pick up little items like pom poms or cotton wool is a fun way to strengthen little hands and get them ready for harder more sophisticated tasks like cutting with scissors and drawing and writing. It also helps with fine motor and eye-hand co-ordination. In this activity the children had a “shopping list” of Pom Pom colours (stickers) and had to hunt around the room and pick up the Pom poms with the tongs in the correct order and put them in the shopping basket.

We had a fun morning at grow Time learning all about “shopping” 🛒

Today our bumps to babes moms had a wonderful morning hearing from amazing women’s health physio Tarryn Graham Physiotherapists

TUESDAY TIP: When it comes to playing with your toddler and small child, don’t forget about good old wheelbarrow walks. They are excellent for core and upper body strengthening and are great fun especially when they end in a heap of tickles and giggles with mom. The closer you hold your child to their upper body the easier the wheelbarrow walks are - so with your toddler start by holding them at their hips and then when they get older and stronger you can move to their knees and then their ankles.

What a treat to have with us at our bumps to babes postnatal moms group this morning. We chatted through all things to do with the first 1000 days, breastfeeding and weening! What an informative morning 💚

TUESDAY TIP: Obstacle courses are a great fun way to develope little muscles and core strength. Think crawling, climbing, bouncing and jumping activities. Make your own obstacle course at home. For example : tables and chairs to crawl over and under; pop up tunnels or boxes to crawl through, bean bags or cushions to climb over and large balls to bounce and roll on. Skipping ropes/string tied between two chairs also makes a great challenge to step over or crawl under.

Our Bumps to Babes moms had a great time this morning, as they heard all about childhood illness from Dr. Bill van Dongen.

TUESDAY TIP: Don't throw away finished formula tins - they make GREAT toys for posting games. Change the size of the hole and the items being posted for children of different ages from babies under 1 to 3 yr old toddlers. In this picture rummikub pieces with stickers on them have to be matched and posted into the slot with the same sticker.

TUESDAY TIP: Edible paint makes great messy play for babies under 1, and you can vary the consistency from runny and gooey to thick and squishy. Make it using flour and water at a ratio of 1:2. Heat the flour and water on a medium heat, stirring until smooth. Remove, add food colouring and then slowly stir in cold water until you reach the desired consistency.

Today our 2 year olds learnt all about “things that go” 🚗🚌🚒🚃✈️🛳

Our tumble time (1-2 year old) tots loved finding creepy crawlies in their messy play activity today!🐛🐜🦂

TUESDAY TIP: Using different sensory mediums (different textures and colours and sounds etc) to practice prewriting skills like mark making, scribbles and drawing shapes really helps little brains learn new things because it stimulates multiple senses. Here we used shaving foam in a bag with food colouring, then using our fingers to squish away the foam and mix the food colouring while copying different lines and shapes.

GROW TIME is back and we are so excited to see all of you again this term!!! 💛

Bumps to Babes...Is a wonderful group for 1st, 2nd or 3rd time moms...as we hear from excellent specialists such as Clinical Psychologist Mandy Matthews, who gives us tools to deal with the experience of being a mother and how hugely your life is changed; and also how to support your toddler when their new little sibling is born💛

Join our next group starting on Wednesday the 25th of July!

One of our most favourite messy play activities at Grow Time is using bottles to sq**rt! In this activity we sq**rted different coloured vinegar onto bicarb and watched it bubble, learning all about colour mixing and forming new colours 🌈 as well as numbers (our weeks theme) as the children had to find each number in the bubbling mix⭐

Squeezing a bottle is a great fine motor activity and helps children to build up the muscle strength in their little hands and gets them ready to use tools like scissors ✂. Squeezy bottles are an easy, cheap, fun activity to do at home, fill them with water and let them squeeze water in the bath or water the flowers 🌸

One week until our classes start again on the 16th of July!💚 we can’t wait to see all of you and hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday!

Email us if you would like to join any of our groups.

Just two weeks left to go until Bumps to Babes starts and we’re getting so excited!! Only a few spots left, so don’t forget to book your spot! 📷 by the amazing who did such a special photo shoot with our previous bumps to babes moms and babies 👶🏼

Grow Time Tuesday Tip: Large magnets are great toys to play with - buy some from the toy shop or make your own with stickers and magnetic sheets. These can be put on and off baking trays to promote grasping and hand skills development or played with on fridges to promote sitting / standing balance and reaching or sitting - standing transitions

We are getting so excited for our next bumps to babes mothers postnatal group starting on the 18th of July...don't miss out on an amazing opportunity to connect with other moms and hear from professional speakers.

Grow Time Tuesday Tip: Although messy play might be quite daunting for parents...it’s so important for your children to get their hands messy. Try and look in your pantry to see what you can use in a plastic tray to get messy outside! Here we are playing with cornflour and conditioner, which makes a really sticky “goo”...hide some cars, plastic animals or bath toys in the mixture and make it a game to get each one out! Have fun and don’t worry about getting messy 💛

Our 2-3 year olds loved learning all about matching in their afternoon group!

Don’t miss out on either of our postnatal moms groups coming up! We have some incredible speakers lined up...come and learn, relax and connect with other moms and babies💛👶🏼

Messy jelly play with our 1 year olds has to be one of our most favourite💛