One of the reasons I enjoy going to activities at Artplay is that it is dedicated time to play and engage with my kids. It’s a good way to schedule in fun outside the daily grind of feed-play-sleep-feed-play-sleep.
Being the second baby, Baby 2.0 has had fewer opportunities to have one-on-one play time so I was looking forward to taking him to Clouds by artist Emma Salzano.
It was a session designed for babes in arms and crawlers and all about movement and physical sensations. We took our shoes off and carried, walked and bounced with our baby for about 45 minutes, introducing them to different sounds and textures and colours. The set up was very basic, with a draped curtain, some items on the floor and simple props and it gave me some new ideas about how I could incorporate everyday, found objects into our games.
The playtime was accompanied by gentle music, from classical to world rhythms, and started off with a little congo line feeling the softness of a draped curtain on our faces and hands and playing games of peekaboo. Then we lay down to make rhythms by rasping a bit of plastic tarp with our feet and our hands and scratching carpet and foam squares.
Every kid enjoys a ball pit and I think the kids enjoyed rolling, throwing and kicking around the different sized balls the most. Baby 2.0 and I had particular fun shaking the smaller balls with chimes inside and then bouncing and rolling on the big exercise ball.
All in all Baby 2.0 seemed to really enjoy the experience, particularly as he’s in a really tactile stage at the moment and likes to explore lots of different textures with his hands (and his mouth). The movements and sounds are gentle so no one seemed overwhelmed or overstimulated by the experience, which can sometimes be the case.
The next session of Clouds is on Thursday 5 September, 10.30am to 11.15am; 11.45am to 12.30pm. You can book online and it costs $15 per child (all children must be accompanied by an adult).
