The library isn't just for books

In my search for fun summer activities, the library was one of the first places I looked.  This is probably not only because it is free entertainment but because many of my fondest childhood summer memories involved the library.

Here's what I learned after my search:  the library isn't just for books.  My library system has a full calendar of summer activities.  Our first activity today was Gymboree.

Many of you may be familiar with the Gymboree clothing line.  They also do music and dance classes for toddlers (called Gymboree Play and Music).  However, it is a bit pricey and not something that currently fits into my budget.  Therefore, a free opportunity to try it out was welcomed.

I wasn't the only one excited about the free activity opportunity - the place was packed.  They were actually turning people away as the class started because we'd reached the maximum occupancy in the room.  The class began with a book about astronauts that kept with the library's summer theme:  "Dream Big".  From there, there were lots of songs, dancing, and props to make it all the more fun.  The children were offered musical "instruments" like sticks to bang together, finger cymbals, and maracas.  A later song gave the kids colorful scarves or animal puppets to use.

My son, Max, enjoyed the colorful parachute the best.  It was intended for the kids to hold on to the edges and wave it up and down, but very quickly the smaller kids (possibly led by my two) began walking on the parachute.  This was because it had a couple of balls on it.  The class instructor played a song and walked around the room blowing bubbles which got cheerful shrieks of "BUBBLES!" from Max.  I was super impressed with how she went the flow and made it work with the large number of kids of all ages she was trying to entertain during the 45 minutes class.

Max spent the remainder of the class playing with the parachute.  It was actually the easiest part of the class for me because he would stay in one place.  The hard part of taking two one-year-olds to an activity like this is that they often want to go in different directions.  I did the best I could without (hopefully) disturbing anyone else.

The class was a success!  Although the twins aren't quite old enough to really "get" all that was going on, they still had fun with the props, the music, and the dancing.  I'm looking forward to our next library activity next week!