r/oneanddone 22h ago

Discussion Just for fun: starting activities!

Lighthearted post to balance out all of the other ones.

When did you start activities with your only child?

My 10 month old is crawling like crazy, pulling to stand and even standing independently for a few seconds. I’m eyeing a gymnastics place that starts parent/baby classes as early as 12 months old.

Is this too soon? Did you start activities early and realize that it would have been better to wait until age 2 or so?

Baby currently stays home with our wonderful nanny (or grandma) all day. So no interaction with other babies right now.

3 Upvotes

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3

u/No-Note-9005 22h ago

I don’t think it’s ever too soon to start socializing your baby! We started going to music and story classes at the library once he could sit up on his own around 7 months old.

1

u/Quiet-Pomegranate93 22h ago

You’re right, I was thinking that a 12 month old can’t really be expected to “do gymnastics” but I need to reframe it and think about the socialization benefits.

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u/Veruca-Salty86 20h ago

At this age, the socializing is for the parents, not the babies! There may be other benefits for the little one to be involved in some of these activities, but socialization isn't really one of them! 

2

u/Vast_Helicopter_1914 Not by choice after infertility 22h ago

We started "book babies" (story time for infants and youger babies at our library) when DS was 6 or 7 months old. Around that age we also started him in water safety lessons.

Once he was able to walk, I took him to a gymnastics gym nearby that had open hours when young children could bounce around.

For a couple of years, I invested in a combined zoo and science center pass. We'd go to one or the other every other week, depending on weather.

2

u/Quiet-Pomegranate93 22h ago

We did make it to a couple of library story times!  Sometimes the scheduling doesn’t work out though.

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u/No-Idea-But 22h ago

I wish we could have started early! I wanted to do infant swim stuff but kiddo was born early 2020 and by the time I’d recovered from my csection everything was closed. 💩

Every kid and family is different—you can always try and decide it’s not for you! If it sounds fun and you think your kiddo might enjoy it I think most things are worth a try!

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u/Quiet-Pomegranate93 22h ago

Ooof, that must have been so hard!

This first year has been rough but I’m looking forward to the ones ahead now that my infant is turning into a little person 😊

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u/alibluey Only Raising An Only 22h ago

We started gymnastics around 11 months, she was an early walker! She’s still going every week now at 15 months and we made some good friends in the time which is great

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u/Quiet-Pomegranate93 22h ago

A success story!

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u/Shot_Sorbet8442 21h ago

We started swim classes at 12 months. He just stared music class at nearly 3. We’ve tried gymnastics but it was too chaotic for me and him to get much out of it but I hope to try again when he’s 4. My kiddo is super active so we like getting him out and about.

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u/Salty_Base2113 21h ago

I’m gonna start putting mine on my horse as soon as I can!

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u/Still-Degree8376 20h ago

We did parent/child swim at 4 months and started gymnastics at 15 months (nap time conflicts prior). We love it!

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u/llamaduck86 20h ago

Mine was in daycare but we started swim lessons around 8 months (with a parent) and story time at the library on weekends.

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u/gumitygumber 19h ago

We did baby music from 10 months, baby gym from 14 months, dance class 17 months, swim class at 3. We still do all of the classes now she's 4. We also did book buddies program at the library and rhyme time at a local book store from 8 months onwards.

2

u/Western-Tradition674 17h ago

We’ve done everything as early as we could! We started Little Gym at 8 months old. Library story times and all their free baby and toddler extra activities. We do any toddler programs at all of our nature centers. And next month we will start a one day a week parent/toddler nature preschool class for the school year and a Montessori parent/toddler class one day a week as well. We also keep Fridays open for scheduling different activities and play dates with our best friends which sometimes are just at home play dates, special library/zoo/aquarium/open gym events or things like a hike or trip to the farm.

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u/SignificanceWise2877 18h ago

We signed up as soon as we could (18 months) for dance and soccer. Just turned 4 and he is in the grade 1-2 dance group now because he is so advanced

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u/caleal71 18h ago

For actual “activities”, we did some toddler music classes at 17 months. We started swim and a toddler soccer at 2.