A lot of parents arrive at their first class expecting to sit at the side and watch.
They find a spot near the wall, put the bag down, and get ready to be an audience. About ten minutes later they are on the floor, kneeling in front of a sand tray, with sand up to the wrist and a toddler steering a toy truck through it. Nobody told them to move. The class just does not have a side to sit at.
That is the thing worth knowing about a parent and child class before you book one. You are not dropping your child into an activity. You are doing it with them.
What a parent and child class is
A parent and child class is a weekly class your child does with one grown-up beside them for the whole session. In Singapore the same thing goes by several names: parent-accompanied playgroup, adult-accompanied class, mummy and me class. They all mean the same arrangement. Your child gets a room planned for their age, and you are in it with them.
Ours are for children from 8 months to 3 years. Little Troopers runs in English and Little Mandarin runs in Mandarin, with the same ages and the same kind of play. For babies who are sitting but not yet walking, Mini Troopers and Mini Mandarin are the 8 to 12 month version. All four are on our parent-accompanied playgroup and baby class pages.
The reason these classes exist is something we see every week. A one-year-old in a new room explores far more when a familiar person is within reach. They crawl off to investigate the paint, come back to check you are still there, and go off again. Take the familiar person away and many of them simply stop.
What you actually do in the hour
You join in, at your child's pace. That is the whole job.
Each class has a shape that stays the same from week to week, and the shape matters more than any single activity. At Little Forest it goes roughly like this:
- Songs in a circle on the floor, much the same each week, so children learn what comes next.
- Music and movement. Clapping, stomping, waving, being bounced on your knee. You are the equipment for most of this.
- A story, read by a teacher, with pictures held up close.
- The main activity, which changes every week. Simple science one week, art and craft or sensory play the next. Sand, water, paint, dough, things to pour and tip.
- Snack time, which is calmer and more social than it sounds.
Each term has a theme, with a letter and a word of the week running through it, so there is something to talk about at home afterwards if you want to.
Inside that shape, what you do mostly looks like this. You hand over the scoop. You help pour, then stop helping. You sing the song even if you do not know the words yet. You follow your child to the corner they have decided is more interesting than the activity, and you let that be fine.
What if my child will not join in?
Then they do not join in, and the class carries on around them.
This is the question parents ask us most, usually after a first class where their child spent twenty minutes holding onto their leg. It is normal, and it tells you very little. A lot of children watch for a whole session, or two, before they touch anything. They are learning the room, the songs, the faces. When they do join in, they often go straight to the thing they watched other children do the week before.
The same goes for a child who ignores every other child in the room. At this age children play next to each other far more than with each other, and that is not shyness. We wrote a whole piece on why toddlers play side by side, because it worries parents more than almost anything else.
What helps most is boring. Come to the same class at the same time each week, so the songs and the faces become familiar. The second and third classes almost always go better than the first.
Who can come with your child
Any one grown-up your child is comfortable with. It does not have to be a parent.
Plenty of our regulars come with a grandparent or a helper, and some families take turns from week to week. The class works the same either way. What matters is that your child trusts the person next to them.
It is one adult to one child in the class itself. If two of you come, you can swap over from snack time onwards. We keep the door closed before that, because people coming and going distracts the children and can cause accidents.
Parent and child class, or drop-off?
They are different things, and neither is the better one.
In a parent and child class you are in the room the whole time. In a drop-off class, a teacher takes over and you wait outside or go and get a coffee. Our drop-off classes are Forest Troopers, from 18 months to 3 years, and Explorers Club, from 2 to 5 years.
Plenty of families start in a parent and child class and move across to drop-off once their child has settled, and you can usually see that moment coming. They stop checking where you are. They start walking off without looking back.
If your child is somewhere around eighteen months and you are not sure which side of that line they are on, we wrote about exactly that in playgroup at 18 months.
How to choose a parent and child class
If you are comparing a few in Singapore, here is what we would look at. Most of it is not on the brochure.
Can your child learn the shape of the hour? A class that does a completely different thing every week can feel exciting to an adult and unsettling to a one-year-old. You want a familiar rhythm with something new inside it.
What happens when a child does not want to join in? Watch how the teachers handle it. A child sitting out is information, not a problem to be fixed.
Is there space for you? You will be on the floor for most of the hour. Check that there is room to kneel and move next to your child without bumping into another family.
Does the timing fit your week? A class during your child's nap will go badly whatever is in it. Pick the slot where your child is usually at their best, even if it is less convenient for you.
Language. If you would like your child to be comfortable in Mandarin later, a class taught in Mandarin is a very easy place to start. Our Mandarin playgroups run alongside the English ones, and many families do one of each.
Then go twice before you decide. The first class is mostly about the room.
Before your first class
A few practical things, so the first one goes smoothly.
Socks for everyone. Adults too. Anti-slip ones are best.
Dress for the floor. You will kneel, sit cross-legged and get paint on you. Wear something you do not mind.
Bring a water bottle, a bib or apron for your child, and for the youngest ones a change of clothes and diapering things. Play here gets messy.
Book ahead. We need more than 12 hours' notice, and we do not take walk-ins.
At our partner venues, Kiztopia Prestige in New Bahru and Wan To Play at i12 Katong, it is one adult with one child in class. You get 30 minutes in the play area afterwards, and extra adult tickets can be bought on site.
Where we run them
Our parent and child classes run at three venues in Singapore. Kovan is our own centre and runs Little Troopers and Little Mandarin on weekday mornings, late afternoons and Saturday mornings, plus the Mini classes for babies. Kiztopia Prestige in New Bahru has one English Little Troopers class on Friday mornings, and Wan To Play at i12 Katong has one Little Mandarin class on Friday mornings. Addresses are on our locations page.
A trial class is $55, for families new to Little Forest. It is the simplest way to find out whether a class suits your child, and you. Book a trial class, come in your socks, and expect to end up on the floor.
