Location: 1117 Gerrard St. East (Leslie and Gerrard)
Website: http://parentresourcesdropin.ca/
Regular Hours: Monday–Friday 9am – 12:30pm, Saturday 9:30am – 12:30pm
Ages: 0-6 years
Parent Resources is a free drop in center that is also open on Saturdays during the school year. Generally it is open from 9:00am until 12:30pm but sometimes they have field trips so be sure to check their schedule online.
There are a number of rec centers that offer swimming lessons for babies and toddlers for free or at low cost in Toronto. You can search for them here on the city of Toronto website. Even though it’s not the closest though I prefer to go to the newly renovated Regent Park pool for both lessons and drop in swim. You can see the programs currently offered at Regent Park here. Continue reading “Baby Swimming at Regent Park”
Location: 60 Woodfield Road – Basement Level of Duke of Connaught School
Website: http://www.applegrovecc.ca/progfamily.htm
Regular Hours: Tuesday through Friday, 9 am to 2 pm.
Age: 0-6 years
Applegrove is one of the closest drop ins to my house and one of my favourites. It’s generally Tuesday to Friday from 9:00am to 2:00pm.
Living and Learning with Baby is a free parenting class run by Toronto public health. The focus of the class is attachment parenting techniques.
Make the connection is a parenting class run by Toronto Public Health (TPH). It is the follow-up class to living and learning with baby for babies under 6 months. Find more info here on the tph website.
I was not able to attend many of the classes, this is mostly because of the logistical issues with the class sign up, more on that later.
The class itself was great. It is run by nurses from TPH. They include a song circle which is nice for the babies and well as discussion of parenting topics. There is a strong focus on attachment theory. It is very similar to another class called Baby Love that I took at the south riverdale drop in center. They also provided some books and resources to take home. I found the nurses very helpful in answering questions. There was a lot of opportunities to discuss our personal questions and concerns. The one issue I would have with the class itself is the room was not childproof. My son was one of the older babies and he has been crawling since 7 months so it was somewhat exhausting trying to keep him away from wires and audiovisual equipment that was in the room. Continue reading “Make the Connection”
Location: 80 Sackville Street (Inside the school)
Website: http://www.eyetfrp.ca/events/index.cfm
Regular Hours: Monday- Friday 9am – 12:30pm
Age: 0-6 years
EYET is a drop-in center that also runs a variety of programs. It’s a little bit west for me but some of the programs are definitely worth it. In September for example they had free infant sign language workshops.
Website: City Website
Hours: Open all day for visiting the farm but recreation drop in is saturday 9:00-3:30
Riverdale farm is an awesome place to take your little ones for a day trip. There are lots of animals to see and you can pet some of them (sheeps/goat) when they go by the fence. There is a mix of indoor and outdoor animals.
There are also some programs for younger children. From 9:30-3:30 on Saturdays they offer drop in play with Caregiver and there is a registered program on weekdays. Continue reading “Riverdale Farm”
Update November 6, 2017: The fall baby time session is now over but it will resume in about a month for the winter session.
I’m so excited the fall session of baby time has started at Jones library. Baby time is a 30 minute song circle and unlike the Beaches library location it is a drop in programs so you don’t need to preregister.
Website: https://www.ripleyaquariums.com
Ripley’s aquarium is a great day trip with a baby especially once they are crawling but it is also a nice day trip for caregiver with a younger baby. It’s definitely on the pricey side and I have yet to see any tickets ever go on sale but it’s nice to change things up. If you like going then the yearly pass is easily justified with two visits.
The visuals of the aquarium are definitely interesting for a baby and there are some tunnels to crawl through for a crawling baby. There is a small play area at the end as well as some activities for older kids. I believe it can get very busy so it could be a bit overwhelming on the weekend. There are nursing rooms available which is nice.
There is kids programming starting at age 2+ Continue reading “Ripley’s Aquarium”