Daytime Activities for Toddlers in Ditmas Park

Now that your school aged kids are busy from 8am to 3pm, what do you do with your toddler? We’ve pulled together daytime activities around the neighborhood.

Fitness
• Urban Martial Arts offers an after school program for “parents wanting their children to reach their peak potential.”
• Latin Fever Dance Studio just released info on its fall classes, which include Mommy & Me sessions as well as karate, ballet, and dance. See the full schedule here.
• Midwood Martial Arts hosts daytime classes for young ones and a variety of after-school options.
• Kings Bay Y offers a number of swim classes for baby and baby’s care provider. Search the Flatbush YMCA schedule for everything from ballet to yoga. Before you click “sign up,” double check the branch is accessible to you. The Flatbush YMCA search engine runs with other YMCAs in the area.

Music
• Jr. Musical Explorers and Musical Explorers starts with free demo classes next week, and the sessions begin at the end of the month at Midwood Martial Arts.
• Develop rhythm and introduce math through music Music for Aardvarks with Adora Rox holds classes at Lark and Midwood Martial Arts.
• Lark, on Church Ave, has a regular schedule of classes—some drop in, some pre-register—including Silly Sing-a-Long with “the Ballooniac” and the Yellow Sneaker Puppet Sing Along. Adults can grab a Sumptown coffee on the way in or out.
• On the Kensington/Windsor Terrace side, Music Together holds a list of almost full classes at Jaya Yoga.
• Third Root is hosting a Music Together trial run in Ditmas proper today, Thursday, September 6 at 10:45am.
• Rock-ucation is offering classes at Play Kids in nearby Prospect Lefferts Garden.

A toddler enjoys playing along with James and The Munchkin Music Club.

A number of organizations will host classes in your home if you gather up musicians.
• Musical Explorers offers classes at Midwood Martial Arts and in private homes.
• Sign-A-Song is a great way to introduce language to the pre-verbal set.
• The Munchkin Music Club, a favorite of the Cortelyou Moms, has toddlers singing and beating drums all day long.

Art
• The end of September brings the beginning of the Art Semester at Marilyn’s Art Studio in Ditmas Park. Classes start at 4pm and are broken up by age groups. Contact Marilyn for more info, 917-699-3507, marilyndavid@optonline.net.
• The Brooklyn Museum of Art offers daytime classes for young artists and their caregivers. As the artists grow, the classes move to after school.
• Namaste Yoga is more than down dog. Next Thursday the Russian Art Studio and Theatre Program begins.
• ArtHouse is offering classes at Lark and MMA, with free trial classes coming up over the next couple of weeks.

Outdoors
• Prospect Park holds free weekend classes at various locations around the park every weekend through December.
• The Botanical Garden’s classes are more formal and sell out quickly. The horticulturist’s caregiver gets to learn too.
• For our budding zoologists, the Prospect Park Zoo has daytime classes for tots and afterschool classes for older kids.

Continuing education for the adult set—Set an example for your life-long learners by registering for and taking classes yourself.
• The Brooklyn Botanical Garden lists a number of classes from horticulture to kitchen culture.
• Third Root, in the heart of Ditmas Park, offers classes focused on health and healing.
• Start—or polish—that novel with a Rachel Sherman Writing Class.

Other Options
• Consider joining the Cortelyou Moms Yahoo group. Many moms pool resources to create their own music (or art, or sign language) classes. These classes are advertised and available to Cortelyou Moms only as the classes take place in private homes.

Do you have a favorite class? Please let us know.