Gymboree Classes

Gymboree the popular children's clothing brand has been offering play and music classes for kids up to the age of  five for thirty years. Their classes are quiet popular. I came to know about Gymboree from my friend Marsha. Marsha takes her one year old son Maziar to Art class for his age group once a week. So one fine day Aariz and I registered to take try out the Art class for free! Aariz didn't like the Art class and had to get out of there after just five minutes because he was too interested in the class he passed by. The Play & Learn class which is a big open room filled with child safe play equipment like slides, balls, bouncers and many more. So I decided to try out the Play & Learn class for 24 to 36 month kids taking place at that time. Aariz loved playing there occasionally joining in with the group. It is basically an activity based class where everyday they read a story to the children and then they act out the story through imaginary play. One day they read about astronauts going to the moon and then acted that out in their playground with make believe space ship, special food etc. The teacher Nadia blows bubbles towards the end of the class which the kids try to catch with bubble catchers. The class is filled with different activities to keep the child creatively engaged. Aariz enjoys it so every Wednesday Aariz and I take the number 11 bus near our apartment to go to Gymboree at Bayview. Its a ten minute bus ride and then a two minute walk to the class. Barira was always curious what Aariz does in his class and she wanted to do something herself. She loves art and wanted to join the Art class. I've enrolled her on to the Art III class for 3to5 year old kids for the two summer months only. When school starts in fall it'll not be possible to match the time with school. She took the first class last Wednesday and loved it. Asks everyday when the next class will be. Gymboree has open play times three times a week where the enrolled children can come and play on their own in the activity room. Yesterday we took Barira and Aariz for the open play time. They had a great time for the two hours they were there. The pictures are from yesterday.

Barira : Ammu ami ekta murgi ami boshe dim parchi

No TV

Enjoying sliced almonds on the balcony

On the swing

Barira pushing her brother

Aariz resting on the park bench with his bottle of water

We're on a TV curfew at home for the kids. Its been five days so far that the kids weren't allowed to watch any cartoon on TV. The only thing we watch is the daily NTV evening news and that's all. They're being pretty creative in finding new ways to keep themselves busy. They had a picnic on the balcony on their favorite "Kathas". Aariz's red one and Barira's purple. Barira's favorite color has changed from green to purple after coming here. She loves everything purple now. When we read books together she notices even the tiny things that are in purple! They play hide and seek, running after each other and enjoy diving from the sofa. So no tv is getting a little dangerous at times too. I've introduced them to an alphabet learning tool on the internet. This is a program for teaching kindergarten kids. Barira's JKG teacher also used this program in her class. Barira and Aariz both enjoy playing the alphabet games. I plan to introduce the TV back for them in moderate doses. I want to allow them to watch tv for maximum an hour a day. That's what we had when were growing up. We take them to the park everyday now that its summer. So they're getting to do a lot of physical activity. Aariz walks to the big park at the end of our road which is a good ten minute walk from our apartment. After playing and running around he walks half the way back home. They love going on the swing. Both have graduated to the adult's swing. There's also a sand pit at the park with sand toys such as trucks, spades, shovels and pails. They love playing in the sand. Most days we meet with our neighbors/friends Enis, Georgie and their kids are the park. They kids are the same age as Barira and Aariz. The oldest Ema went to JKG with Barira. So they have a good friendship. Barira and Aariz are always happy to meet Ema and Ille at the park. 

Open Air Theatre

Dominic Melcusa performing on stage

Ammu, Uncle, Barira in the audience

Barira holding her special Malaysian Roti Paratha

Performance by the Busker

Aariz and Barira has front row seats for the Busker's performance

King's Speech on the big screen

They weren't too interested in the movie so enjoyed the surroundings instead

Barira and Aariz loved the fountain

This evening we went to the Mel Lastman Square at North York Town Center. It's a beautiful square with an open air theatre. It was the first day of Cultura2011 a community festival. There were food stalls from different countries...Malaysia, India, Korea, Thailand, Caribbean and many more. Barira had a roti paratha from the Malaysian stall. They were selling Murtabaks which are basically paratha's stuffed with beef, chicken or veggies. For Barira they served a special paratha only. We got samosa and spring roll from the Thai stall and they were delicious. We were first treated to a performance by Juno award winner Dominic Melacusa this Italian born Canadian singer. It was quiet nice. After that during was a performance by a Busker while the movie equipment were set up. He showed juggling, riding a one tire bike, breathing fire and juggling knives blind folded. Aariz and Barira were fully engrossed. During the movie Aariz made friendship with the lady sitting beside me. He fed her popcorn and tried to have a conversation with her in English. We walked quiet a bit around the square, by the waterfall. Kids had a great time. It felt really nice to be out there. I missed Rouham a lot. It would be nice to go there with him.