Would you attend a toddler class after 3.30pm? Please pick apart my idea!

[Yorkshiremum22]

I'm a toddler Mum and former English teacher (primary).

I work full time and my 20 month old is in nursery. I want to take him to some classes - both for his benefit, but also for mine to meet other parents - but everything in my local area for his age group happens during the school day. I pick him up at 3pm three days per week and we do some sort of activity until tea time but did find this especially challenging in the winter or when the weather is bad.

My idea is to run a toddler group from our local village hall centres around language development, stories and developing an early love for reading, that starts at 3.45pm and runs until 4.30pm.

If this was in your area, is this something you would attend?

Initial musings:

1. Ages 18 months - 3 years. Bigger kids are welcome to attend - they can join in and 'help' their siblings, or sit and read independently if they are old enough to do so in a dedicated area set up with cushions / bean bags especially for them.
2. £3.50 per child per week - no charge for adults or bigger kids.

Would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions! Not really looking to make a business out of this, per se - just enough to cover hall hire, resources and insurance, etc.

@Yorkshiremum22

If I knew you were starting up, I'd try it out to support you, but it's not something I'd go looking for.

if the older one enjoyed it we'd probably keep going, but if they were bored or it meant them missing out on other things it would probably only be occasionally.

Definitely more in the winter, 🥶

however, my unasked for opinion is that it'll be a lot of work for not much return (I don't mean financially) and with the summer break coming up I'd use that to really get out & about meeting people & hosting coffee/ play dates with anyone you get on with to build your circle that way.

I would. As small toddler Ds napped some time between 12-2.30pm. Then bedtime 8-8.30pm. So would have a good 5 hrs to fill before bed.
anytime between 3.30-5.30pm would be good

I might have come when I just had DS1.
There is not a chance that older siblings will sit and read quietly while the group for the toddlers is going on. If they join in with the toddlers they will dominate the activity, then get bored and start running around.
I would only come if it was running concurrently to a group for the older children.

I have a toddler and this sounds like a nice idea. However, I work 4 days a week until 5pm so wouldn't be able to go to a class at this time. Same for most people I know, not many office based jobs finish at 3pm.

On my one non-working day I have my 5 year old with me after school hours, and we usually and see friends or just go home and chill as he's tired after a full week at school. I can't see him wanting to attend a class for smaller kids- so if I wanted to go to a class I'd find one earlier in the day when I didn't have my older DC with me.

No, my bigger one is shattered after school and my younger naps after school pick up.

I think you'd need to do quite extensive market research to see if there's enough demand. For many in work, 3pm is very much part of the working day. Whereas at home parents have a wider range of activities already available to them.

This time would be great for mine.

But it sounds exactly like the (free) story time session libraries run? What makes it better/worth paying for?

I think this would only appeal to first time mothers/fathers who don’t work that day. Everyone else will be doing the school run at that time.

Honestly it just won't work if older school aged kids also attend. They will dominate the group and definitely not just sit quietly on the cushions.

It also sounds like a rather odd choice for a toddler group in a hall which are normally play based and much more like the rhyme time sessions run in most libraries.

Not really no as we ate for 5ish so would always be getting things done then

I would have loved some from 8am but most were 10-12 maybe the odd one later

I would go to this if it was in my child's school hall, and it ended at school pick up time, and it was donations based and after costs any money went to the school funds.

I run a toddler group as a volunteer. We ran afternoon sessions for a while after lunch time and there wasn't a great uptake. It wasn't covering the hall hire basically which was only £6 per hour - bear in mind we already had everything because we ran in a morning.

I wouldn’t as busy doing other things with older 2. However lots of my friends with toddlers and no older siblings are always looking for things to do in the afternoon, so I think it would be good for some.

I would have come with dc1, my DH worked long hours, all baby and toddler groups were in the morning, and I was often lonely in the afternoon. But your audience is very much single child families. People with older children need to spread themselves thinner, the older dc have after school activities to be ferried to etc.

No, it would have been too late for my dd when she was that age (a couple of years ago). She wouldn’t nap in the day and by the afternoon, she was beyond it. I deliberately picked a morning pre school slot for this reason.

Have you seen the messy church model? Those are after the end of school. There is usually a story, craft, singing and a snack. Children of mixed age. Usually toddlers and up to 7 year olds.
A secular version of that is a gap in the market.

No, we everyone would be too cranky by that time of day. Maybe if it had been a super chilled day but certainly not after nursery.

No I wouldn’t sorry. It would clash with the school run but presuming it didn’t my older child would be bored. For my youngest who is in your target age range I just don’t think it’s needed because they get plenty of peer interaction whilst at nursery which is a school nursery with qualified teachers and they already do phonics there and loads of reading. Another point of groups is socialising yourself and really I’m not on the look out for new friends, not in an anti social way or anything, just that I already struggle to find time to see the ones I already have so I only really do activities for the kids now that they massively want to do or I consider important like swimming lessons. Finally, if the weather allows I like them to get some energy out before bed and run around in the park. But it may appeal to first time mums who want something to fill the gap between nap time and dinner so I wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea, just that it wouldn’t be for us! Good luck if you do decide to go for it!

To be honest I would just take them to the library if I wanted them to have some story time out of the house.

You need to put more boundaries around the bringing of older children too, and think about the worst case scenarios e.g. they argue with each other, disrupt the session, etc. Are you expecting the parents to manage that?

We really lack any afternoon pre school classes/ groups here. I would have come to your class but older dc start school in Sept and would be too tired. Would be perfect if I had one preschool dc.

If I was working this toddler class would be too early.
if I had other children but was around for pick up then this class couldn’t happen because frankly it doesn’t t sound like something for older kids.
toddler classes during the day
or in the weekend would be more appealing.

As PPs have said, I think 3.45 is a tricky time. Toddler tired/school runs/parents at work/older DC at clubs. How about a Saturday morning?

Also my older DC wouldn't likely be happy to sit through it after a long day at school if I managed to make it after the school run.

Also, I always felt like I had to be wary of older kids around my toddler. They often don’t realise how much bigger and stronger they are and toddlers might get hurt. That would put me.

*put me off

Having school aged kids attend would probably end in disaster. They would dominate the activities and toys and I think that the families with babies would quickly leave. The older kids are unlikely to sit on cushions and read or help the younger ones - they will end up playing with each other and are less likely to watch their kids compared to parents of younger kids.

If it was only for kids not at school yet then I think that there could be demand but the older kids are coming straight from an afternoon of sit down learning so will have physical energy that they’ll want to burn.