Play Group

Each Thursday, Maddy and I attend a playgroup held at the Weinheimer Building in Highland.  We started this past fall when my mommy guilt was really getting to me.  Let me explain.  I love staying at home with my girls.  I am grateful that I don't have to balance work, taking care of my kids, and being a wife.  I love the fact that my sole focus can be on the girls and Kevin, and I admire those that do it all and do it all well.  That all being said, I experience some guilt over the fact that I stay at home and that the girls don't get a lot of interaction with other kids.  Last summer I began searching for activities for toddlers and stumbled upon Playgroup.  This and Mommy and Me class have really helped with this part of my mommy guilt.  And Maddy loves them both.  These pictures are all of play group and I'll explain more about it through out the post.

 Playgroup is for birth through three year olds and there are between ten and twenty kids there each week.  The leader was a former early childhood teacher and sets up different stations in the gym.  This week there was shaving cream for the kids to play in.  As one of the other mom's said, "This is an activity we save for playgroup."  It's not too bad, just a bit messy.

 There are also several riding toys, and Maddy has really been into the tricycles lately.  I'm thinking the Easter Bunny might bring one for her.

And there is a tumbling area for the kids to climb and jump around on.  Charlie's mom was giving Maddy a hand hear.  It is also nice that now some of the same moms and kids have been coming every week and the kids and moms are all pretty comfortable with one another. It has been watching the kids grow and develop and see new skills emerge from week to week.

 Blocks for building.  Maddy tends to hop from station to station for the full hour and a half.  She does it all and gets to play with lots of other kids in the process.

 Here is the sensory table, which has been filled with sand for a while now.  The kids enjoy it though and it is slowly being emptied out on the floor each week. This will save Miss Erin the hassle of having to empty out the heavy sand before switching it around.  In this picture are Phoebe and Sophie.  They are Maddy's friends that attend both playgroup and our dance class so we get to see them and their super nice Mommy twice each week.

So far playgroup is usually a Mommy and Maddy activity, but as Emma gets bigger and more mobile she will get to start coming more too instead of staying home with Daddy on his mornings off.  It has really been a great way for Maddy to get some time with other kiddos, and it has also been nice for me to get to know some other stay at home moms that can relate to my new day to day life. 

 I'll try to take some pictures at dance too, but it is a little bit more structured and I don't want to distract the kids since they get pretty easily distracted all on there own.  We were also invited to join another mommy group today, so we will check that out in the next week or two and see what fun we can have with them.