How we have adapted to meet the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic and keep all customers and staff safe at Adventure Babies

Adventure Babies are Back

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We can’t wait to see you adventurers! It’s going to be over a year after our business was forced to close for the first time which is incredibly sad to be honest. We are thrilled to be back with our face to face sensory storytelling classes from April 12th! We know first-hand how difficult it can be with a new baby or toddler through lockdown. Not being able to access all of the baby and toddler groups, friends or other support usually available during your maternity leave. Our inboxes have gone crazy with excited parents and babies who would like to join our classes then. To make sure you are first to be told about spaces on our Adventure Babies sensory storytelling courses in April have a read below.

1. We will be prioritising any customers who had their courses disrupted first. If your course was postponed please be patient. We have lots of customers to contact but your class leader will be in contact to let you know the plans for restarting.

2. The second group of parents offered spaces will be people who are booked on to a register your interest space. Please see your local Adventure Babies page and book register your interest space when this becomes available. www.adventurebabiesco.uk/classes

3. The third way of grabbing a space on one of our baby classes is through our general waiting list. Please join here

4. The last way to hear about our spaces is through our social media. Please follow our pages and engage with our posts to be the first one to see when classes are bookable in your local area. www.facebook.com/adventurebabiesuk

5. Your friends! If your friends are telling you that a course is available to book you had better be quick if you would like the same time or location as them as we have very limited numbers!

There you have it. The five ways to get your baby booked onto Adventure Babies sensory storytelling baby classes from April 12th! The other thing I am massively looking forward to is getting my hair cut!

We can’t wait to see you all soon.

Big Love Emma x
sensory baby classessensory baby classes

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Baby Classes in Waltham Forest, London, during a Pandemic

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This week I caught up with Helen from Adventure Babies Waltham Forest to hear about the rollercoaster journey she has experienced being a mum and small business owner running baby classes in Waltham Forest during the coronavirus pandemic.

 

First of all could you tell us a bit about your baby classes please Helen? What they are and where they are please?

 

In a nutshell, the classes are Sensory Storytelling Adventures which means that every week we take babies and toddlers on an adventure through an immersive storytelling experience. There are books, props, puppets, sensory play, messy play and heaps more. Everything is linked to a story and to the Early Years Framework, meaning that all the activities are designed to support baby and child development for the stage of the children who attend each class.

Wow these classes sound amazing fun! So am I right in thinking that they are baby development classes with a difference and you have them in Walthamstow, Woodford and Highams Park?

Yes the whole idea is to support language and communication development, sensory development, physical development, memory… everything really.

How did you feel when you heard about the first lockdown? Did it affect your baby classes in Waltham Forest? 

Yes it did! It was terrifying really as being a self – employed mum I didn’t realise how vulnerable I actually was. We decided to stop classes a week before the national lockdown because we felt that there was a risk posed to our customers and we didn’t feel comfortable with it. I corresponded with all of my customers about moving the sessions to an online platform and the response was incredible. Everyone was so understanding. We had a weekend to adapt our classes to an online format which was exciting but also a massive challenge with a toddler to look after and entertain too. Luckily, we all worked together. Adventure Babies is amazing like that. Everybody is so supportive. By Monday we had 3 areas ready to air their online classes and I was one of them….

So you were totally able to adapt what you were offering over one weekend! That’s incredible but must have been hard work especially as a mum of a small baby too!  Are you offering baby classes in Walthamstow, Woodford and Highams Park again? 

Yes I am now thankfully, which is amazing! I think it is so important to be able to get out and about as a new mum or dad. The benefits to your mental health far outweigh the risks for many people. Having a new baby is an emotional time and a time when you need support and encouragement of others going through the same thing, so I wanted to be able to get back to my babies, mums and dads as quickly as possible. The whole reason I chose the Adventure Babies Franchise was because I looked at the format and thought it was not only amazingly educational for the babies and children but it also gives parents the opportunity to bond, which in those early years is priceless.

I really can’t believe what you have been through! Just having to adapt and change at every turn at such short notice. You must be really knowledgeable about baby and child development to be able to adapt so quickly.  So how did it feel running the first class after Covid? 

Exciting. Terrifying. I think I went through all the emotions to be honest. I’m just so happy that we can return with our new covid secure classes and that we are currently able to continue throughout each tier level of the next phase of the pandemic.

It goes to show a level of organisation and commitment I had never imagined when I think about turning up to a baby class. So if I wanted to bring my new baby along to a baby class with you how could I book? 

Yep! You said it, organisation is key. I’m so passionate about what I do, that I would always have tried to return as soon as it was safe to do so because I wholeheartedly believe that our classes make such a difference.

We have classes in Woodford on Monday’s, Highams Park on Wednesday’s and Walthamstow on Thursday’s but watch this space for new places in the area opening soon!

 

Stay in touch on my facebook page too 

 

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Reopening social distanced baby classes after Covid

Why are we opening our baby classes when others stay shut?

 

This week our sensory storytelling baby classes opened their doors again for new babies. We have faced many questions about our decision to open, some friendly and supportive and some not so. We thought we would share our thoughts here!

 

Mental Health

Becoming a new parent is a tricky experience made even more difficult by this pandemic. Feelings of anxiety, isolation and depression are commonplace among new parents without being cut off from the world for 17 weeks. We wanted to start back as soon as we could for those parents who were desperate to get out of the house and meet other new parent friends in real life.

 

Baby Development

The first year of life, in fact the first five are crucial to a child’s development. These are the years when the brain is like a sponge. It needs as much stimulation as possible to develop as many links and connections as possible. This early stage of learning has a big impact on future learning so the more sensory stimulation a baby has the better, the more opportunities to develop language and communication skills the better, the more opportunities to support physical, social and emotional development the better. These are all things we do brilliantly at Adventure Babies!

 

We LOVE what we do

We felt so excited to see families and babies again. Some babies had not seen another baby in 3d before!  We all love the impact we have on parents and babies who attend our baby classes. This is such a special and short time in their lives we wanted to be able to let them experience and enjoy the magic of our baby classes whilst their baby is still small.

 

There is NO reason not to

We obviously wanted to keep our families and our customers and their families safe. We also made sure to follow government guidance rather than non government guidance. Luckily we are a creative bunch at Adventure Babies and were able to adapt our format so that distancing and sanitisation requirements could be met, our large team of franchisees have many years of experience at risk assessing both for Adventure Babies and in their past roles. We would never have opened if we were not absolutely sure about the safety of everybody involved. In response to the activity providers who have questioned our decision to open or say that there is no clear guidance for under 5’s the exact guidance that allows us to open safely is the government guidance for multipurpose facilities which does directly reference Early Years and youth activities as well as maximum capacities.

 

So there you have it. Why Adventure Babies are the first baby class to open our doors. We have felt overwhelmed by the messages of support and thanks from parents who attended our sessions this week. It was an amazing feeling that everybody had such a lovely time and to hear that parents were impressed by how we had managed to change not what we do, but how we do it, has made us incredibly proud and happy.

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Our Sensory storytelling baby classes are back!

Adventure Babies sensory storytelling classes are back!

We are so excited to be able to say that we have live, face to face, baby classes starting again in JULY!

 

Here at ABHQ we have been working super hard to ensure that our new format sensory storytelling classes meet all of the criteria to be able to open with correct social distancing and sanitisation measures in place. We have loved the contact and connection the online classes have given us with you but we really can’t wait to see you again in person!

 

At the moment our  classes are for babies from birth until they are mobile but we are looking at ways to move forward with crawling babies and toddlers when it is safe.  Our baby classes are suitable for babies from birth and are a great chance to come and meet baby friends of a similar age supporting their social and emotional  development, meet mum mates in your area and let our talented, knowledgeable, welcoming and friendly team of Adventure Babies crew take a role in the development of your baby.  We’ve got you mamas! Book a class near you and take your new baby on a new sensory storytelling adventure.

Get latest news here 

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Covid – 19

Due to Covid -19 Adventure Babies has had to take action to keep our Adventure Babies families safe. We took the decision to move our baby and toddler classes online until we are instructed that it is safe for us to restart physical sensory storytelling baby and toddler classes again.

I was so impressed when over the course of the weekend all of us Adventure Babies Crew got together virtually and made some big decisions about how to adapt to COVID-19. Well done to Ashleigh and Jo and Beccy who were the first ones to go live and did such an amazing job! People have been really enjoying the online experience as we felt it was important to keep our groups small and local so that parents and babies could be highly interactive in the group and also be with people they will meet in our future sensory storytelling baby and toddler classes.

Join an online class near you today 

Be the first to hear when our classes are back in venues and what added safety measures we will be taking by signing up here

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