How busy is your toddler?

I know that every child is different and every household needs to run in a different way but I’m wondering how many of you have toddlers that are taking classes outside the home and what that looks like. My son is 2.5 now.

I’ll start:
Monday: gymnastics 45min
Tuesday: violin 15min
Wednesday: (alternating weeks) library 1 hour
Thursday: Music for Young Children 45 min.

Currently we’re trying to have the violin class immediately following gymnastics (30 minute break between for travel) but we’re also considering dropping it completely until he’s a bit older as it seems that the schedule may be a bit much. What are you doing?

Right now-

Wednesday: Library Story Time 30-45 minutes (I forget which). We seem to end up going every other week though due to juggling the car or whatever.

Thursday: Prezuki Class (45 min), a very fun music, mommy, and me type class.

That’s it. I would prefer it look something more like this:

Monday Evening: Family story time at the library (30 minutes) (my husband could attend too and help me with both kids)

Tuesday: Baby school, but it would be me and both kids by myself.

Wednesday: Lango Mommy & Me Spanish (45-60 minutes) I want to do a trial class this week, I’ll have to babywear my son and hope for the best.

Thursday: Prezuki Class (45 min) (my husband comes to this one already, we bring both kids even though technically only DD is enrolled, the instructor doesn’t care, I figure it’s good exposure for my son too)

Saturday morning: Gymnastics (45 min) (we would take turns doing the class with DD while the other watches DS in the lobby or at home)

And maybe adding in a T/Th or M/W/F preschool when I can enroll DD. One of my possible preschools teaches some spanish too, so maybe I would drop the Lango spanish class since she would be getting exposure at school.

We were going to baby school and will hopefully start again soon, which is 30 minutes on Thursday nights. We temporarily dropped it for Prezuki. They offer other days/times i have to look into. I was planning to enroll DD in Preschool, but there is only 1 place that I can get her into right now (the options are sooooo limited for 2 year olds and they would let her begin Nov 29 when she turns 2, everything seems to begin at age 2.5 or 3) but it’s M-F 8-12. Seems like a little much to me and more time and money than we are willing to spend. I can’t imagine getting up and out the door with her every day.

I would really like it if she was doing more enrichment activities but there are a few things holding us back.

  1. We are a one car family, my husband leaves for work very early and comes home again around 5. So 30 minutes there and back each way to drop off and pick him up from work, plus travel to and from activities would leave my kids in the car 2.5 to 3 hours each day. What a waste, and how miserable for everyone involved. We are hoping to buy a second vehicle in January, I get stir crazy being home day in and day out with two toddlers, no park within walking distance. It’s really awful that my kids don’t get to just go outside and play on a regular basis, our condo only has a small patio.

  2. Money is another factor. Things like Gymboree are soo expensive. We have to pick and choose carefully because unfortunately, we are not rich.

  3. There is only one of me, and 2 of them! It’s tricky to go out with both kiddos (9 months and 22 months) and I prefer to do classes in the evening when my husband can come too. It’s a lot less stressful on me. I don’t have as much practice either because we don’t do it very often because we only have 1 car.

My friends and their kids come over for dinner or a morning play on Wednesdays evenings and Friday mornings, but that is sometimes irregular and just informal play, mostly so the mom’s can hang out. :slight_smile:

That was a long answer. I was planning on enrolling DD in the M-F preschool in 2 months so I was keeping other activities light, but since I think I have changed my mind, I would like to at least enroll her in the spanish classes soon.

for my 25 month old daughter:

Saturday morning 0900 - 0945 kindermusik (Our Time) ,
Then Violin lesson 1030- 1100 violin lesson,.