Baby Sparks Sensory

There’s 3 spaces left at 11.30am today in our Little Sparks baby class. The 10.30am toddler class is fully booked 👍🏼💜💙💚 See you later folks 🙌🏼🙌🏼

Afternoon Sparklers... this week in sessions our Monday and Thursday groups will be having a teddy bears picnic...bring your bear along 🐻🐼 Our Tuesday and Friday groups are off on a jungle adventure; 🦁🐵 Looking forward to it muchly 💜💙💚

Happy Fathers Day to all the wonderful dads, step dads, grandads, foster dads and blokes generally just bossing it with the little loves in their lives. Anyone can be a father, but it takes someone special to be a dad . . . .... . #fathersday #strongdaddies #allaboutthedads #daddytime
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So, in response to a lot of customer feedback; we’ve made this subtle change to our 10.30am Beeston Friday class; THIS SESSION IS NOW OPEN TO 6 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS. Our 11.30am baby class is consistently sold out (already full today - Saturday - for next Friday’s class). Therefore, by lowering the age limit to at least 6 months, we hope this will enable more people to access this class. We suggest your little one is sitting to be able to come along, however, we no longer request that your baby needs to be on the move (crawling/toddling). As qualified teachers and early years experts, both Emily and I will ensure the provision is as top quality as ever 👍🏼 Any questions, you know where we are... 💜💙💚 thanks so much, Helen and Emily xx

Beeston 10.30 class clarification 👌🏻💜💙💚👌🏻

Took a couple of dome photos today... so beautiful 💜💙💚 . . . . ... . #sparksensory #sensoryplay #sensorybabies #sensorylights #allthelights #allthebabies #bestbabyclass #sensoryimmersion #maternityleavelife #makingmemories #lovetolearn @ West Bridgford
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Well tomorrow is looking mightily ☔️ 🌧 ☔️ again... best get to Spark instead 👌🏻💜💙💚 Space at 10.30am for babies from 8 months upwards. 11.30am session is full 😱

Our additional needs friendly session is running tomorrow Weds 12th June at Crocus Fields... accessible for all age ranges; Babies up to approx 8 years old. Would be lovely to see some new faces 💜💙💚

Going barefoot... so good for our little people. We always suggest you take your children’s shoes off in sessions, and socks if you are able. This isn’t just to keep our resources nice and clean... that is just the added bonus. Going barefoot has so many benefits; 💜 helps your baby to connect and tune into their environment 💜 allows sensory feedback through something other than the hands and the mouth; it can often distract from the desire to mouth everything. 💜 strengthens... feet and lower limbs 💜 enhances proprioception and overall body awareness 💜 enables you to tickle and wiggle lovely little toes (and remove the fluff 😂) 💜 increases agility and mobility; allowing for that sense of feeling through every little aspect of the foot, not just the soles of a shoe or the covers of a sock. 💜 ooh and the joy and freedom of being barefoot, well we all love that don’t we 🦶 🦶
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Word up my lovely Sparkies... 💜💙💚 Massively looking forward to relaunching our Tuesday PAYG sessions tomorrow at Holy Calzone 🙌🏼🙌🏼 10.30am Spark Movers 11.30am Little Sparks And... as a little celebration of now being able to run a toddly crawly group (the Movers session, obvs) here’s a discount code for 50% off the 10.30am session tomorrow; ‘HCmovers’. That makes it only £2.50... bargain!! (The 11.30am is fully booked)... When you book, enter HCmovers into the coupon box and update, this *should* discount the session for you 👍🏼 Any probs... you know where I am 💜💙💚 https://www.sparksensory.co.uk/book-onlin e
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Is your little one a bouncer? Always wanting to be on their feet? Perpetual motion? Yeah, me too... I’ve got two of them! .
And whilst I was reading the bedtime story tonight (Eat your peas... Kes Gray) I was reminded of how important movement is for our little people. Charlie read along, working super hard to use his phonic skills and sight knowledge to read the words. So hard that he couldn’t keep a limb still. He rocked, bounced on his bottom, rolled back onto his back , ...at least 3 times and was never, ever still. Was it annoying...? Yes. Did I tell him to sit still...? Yes. Did I then catch myself and apologise, saying ‘it’s alright, wriggle away..? Yes. .
Children need to move, to bounce and to adjust their sense of balance and gravity constantly. Movement, or proprioceptive input is massively important. The effort required to control the vast amount of muscles used in sitting or standing still is huge, it takes us until adulthood to master this. If a child is focusing on sitting still, especially at a young age, they are focusing on very little else. Charlie was so engrossed in the act of reading, he physically could not stop himself from moving. This perpetual movement is what allows his brain to focus, to have clarity and to apply his ever growing skills and knowledge base. .
So how does this translate to your babies? Your children? Your classrooms? Allow your children the opportunities to move, to spend time on their tummies, to jump, climb, roll and run. When they are reading, allow the wriggles. When they are watching the tv, allow them to hang upside down on the sofa. When they are playing, allow them to stand or lay on their tummies. Motion is good for our little people, stillness has its place but movement is essential. Movement is our children’s way of focusing their thoughts and processing their learning; it provides immediate feedback on the environment, immediate muscle gratification and crucially, it allows the brain the freedom to focus on the minutiae. If a child is constantly focused on sitting still, they struggle to focus on anything else. Ever had your most clear thoughts whilst running or swimming? There’s a reason for that... 👌
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Never underestimate... I’m not crying, you are 😭😭

Beeston classes competition winner...

A wonderful tribute to Judith Kerr. Just a 2 minute read... ❤️

*** EDIT COMPETITION NOW CLOSED *** Winner announced shortly... 👍🏼 And the winner is.... Rachel Roo Williams 😘😘
💜💙💚 Competition time... 💜💙💚... Right then lovely folk of Beeston and surrounding areas... here’s a few photos of one of our sessions which run every Friday term time at the Beeston Youth and Community Centre. Let’s get the word out about the best sensory class in Nottingham 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻 💜 Comment below, tagging a mate who might want to come along 💜 One tag per comment 💜 The more comments the better 💜 Fee free to tell me and Emily why you’d like to win but it’s not essential We will choose a winner at random on Friday 24th May at 6pm who will win a whole half terms worth of free sessions (that’s 7 weeks folks) on Fridays in Beeston at either; 💜 Spark Movers 10.30am (8 months to 3 years approx - once they are confidently crawling) 💜 Little Sparks 11.30am (6 weeks to 13 months approx - or until they are confidently crawling) Good luck.... happy tagging 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
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To follow on from our post earlier in the week about parachute play... here it is in action. Such joy on this little one’s face, her whole body moves in excitement and watch closely how she uses her muscles to readjust her balance when she has a little laughter filled wriggle 💜💙💚 thank you so much Louise for sharing 👍🏼