What would the the ideal time of day for classes?

[glowstar]

Hello,
I am setting up music and movement classes for babies and children aged 10 weeks to 2 1/2 and I am just wondering what people thought as to the ideal time of day for these classes.
I know when my DS was smaller that I was often at a loose end in the afternoons. However, I notice that most of the classes available seem to be in the mornings.
I'm not sure whether to go with my instinct and choose afternoons or whether there is a reason that I should stick to morning.
I would love to know what others think!!

,my children always tended to sleep in the afternoons, so we did morning things mostly.

also could interfere with school pick-up for older siblings

When my kids were little I worked mornings, every morning. There were no baby activities at all in the afternoons! So I spent 5 years of afternoons on my own with the two kids...

Maybe there's a reason for this (like naps) but I think there's a gap in the afternoon market.

If I was going to do it all again and still work then afternoons.

Mornings were best as it didn;t interfere with naps and we could go somewhere straight after nursery drop off.

However I did go to afternoon groups usually between 2pm-3pm after naptime before nursery pick up. Most of the nurseries were an earlier pick up though.

I run music classes for under 5s and have done for ages. I thought afternoon classes could have market but have found that they don't, particularly for the younger end of the age group. I do have one afternoon where I run classes for older re-preschoolers 3-4 yrs, but any for those under 2 have just never really paid their way.

Reasons usually given: conflicts with nap times, feeding times, pickup times for older children or having older siblings at home in the afternoon when wanting to do activities with younger ones.

None of my competitors have managed to run pm classes consistently, so there must be a reason!

There is just no time in an afternoon, there is only realistically an hour between it being the end of lunch and the start of picking up other children and going to after school activities. And it breaks up the teacher's entire day.

I was a little about offering classes at 9.30 (thinking it to early) but they have proved very popular. One lady commented that she likes to "knock off something before 10am so I can go through the rest of the day and if it all turns to custard we have still done something."

i would have liked to do something like this, however, i've always worked the mornings too, so like planetearth, we only had afternoons free.