Prenatal & Infant
Prenatal: Taught by a DONA trained birth doula, with guest speakers from Public Health. Classes cover pregnancy basics, health & wellness, the birth process & comfort measures for labor, & the postpartum period. A chance to meet other families & socialize while preparing for your journey into parenthood. We also offer Prenatal geared towards Young Mothers.
Breastfeeding Class: Be prepared before baby arrives! An opportunity to learn, ask questions, and explore the basics behind the breastfeeding experience. Two evening classes for all expectant parents. Dads encouraged to attend!
Labor & Birthing Class: This class is designed to teach you about labouring. How to work with your body and what to expect while in the hospital. Perfect for first time or repeat parents and their partners and coaches.
Rock & Talk: Focused on children from birth to 18 months old. Includes a variety of information and activities such as making your own baby food, when to start introducing food, baby sign language, ect. Topics will very according to what participants want to explore.
The Importance of Touch: An opportunity to learn comforting and loving touch to sooth and connect with baby. Skin to skin is an important aspect of your child's development - register and learn while socializing with other mamas!
Children
Preschool: Preschool's purpose is to prepare young children for life, not school. It is supposed to help them build character, a sense of self, a inner barometer of right and wrong. Essentially, if a child were a house, preschool is the foundation. It is below the surface, but still holding up the house.
Play & Learn: Come and make new friends while enjoying free play and a snack. Please get active and participate with your child in various physical activities and make having fun a memorable experience for you and your child.
Circle Time: Come and enjoy stories, laughing, crafts and fun for children ages 0 – 5!
Lego Club: There’s nothing better for the imagination than Lego. Children will join us at Parents Place for various Lego building activities as well as a ton of free play time.
Drop Off Childcare: Do you have a scheduled appointment that you need childcare for? Do you need to run some errands that would run smoother with childcare? Drop off childcare is available on Mondays from 9-12 noon for the summer months. Sign up and registration is required 2 full days in advance. This is a service that is available once a month to families.
Cooking Club: Cooking Club is the perfect recipe for teaching children that cooking is an enduring life skill that can be artistic, creative, and sometimes quite surprising! Children will learn the basics of food preparation, kitchen and food safety, cooking and baking techniques, and healthy eating.
Tiny Chefs: It’s never too early to start encouraging independence! In this four-week program we’ll teach your little ones the basics of cooking so it can become a enjoyable staple of your time together.
Pokemon Go: Kids love Pokemon but you not so much? We’ll take them on a three hour walk around Yarmouth (Lunch provided) to catch them all and get in a good day’s exercise while we’re at it! All you need to supply is a device (and charge cable!) for the child to play on and we will provide the data and a charging station.
Girls Talk: A program to empower girls ages 8-12. Come join us for games, conversation and activities. Topics that will be discussed vary and may include bullying, friendships, stress, life changes and challenging times.
Girl on Fire: A 12-week program containing both theory and physical practice. Each weekly class is themed according to inner treasures of self-awareness, self-worth, confidence, discernment, resilience, discipline, optimism, contentment, connection and essence.
Caregivers
Nobody's Perfect: There are no perfect parents, perfect children or perfect people. We can only do our best, and we all need help once in a while. Nobody’s Perfect is a parenting program for parents of children from birth to age five. Sessions are based on what parents want to learn about, not step by step from a book. We give parents a safe place to meet others with children of the same age and the same share interests & concerns.
Co-Parenting: In co-parenting arrangements, both parents choose to put aside their personal differences to develop and implement a parenting plan that they feel is in the best interest of their child’s development. Healthy co-parenting usually requires ongoing communication, troubleshooting, and mutual responsibility, so it can prove challenging to implement following the breakdown of a relationship.
Of course that's easier said than done. Come to us to learn how to get it done.
Lunch & Learn: Each week we will be covering a new topic of interest from how your child's brain devlopes with a gust speaker to how to run your house on a budget. What better way to grain all of this information then over a free lunch?
Self Care: Know your worth in this busy world. Self-care is important to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself as it produces positive feelings and boosts your confidence and self-esteem. Also, self-care is necessary to remind yourself and others that you and your needs are important too.
Craft & Chat: Need a break ? Come join us once a week for six weeks for a chat while having fun with your creative side.
Freezer Meals: Learn how to make easy, cheap meals to feed your whole family! It's as easy as popping filling up a zip lock bag with your ingredients, popping it in the freezer and then dumping that in a crock pot in the morning before you head off to work!
Basic Shelf: A series of workshops where a small group of people are taught how to cook and shop for food on a limited budget. The program is based on the strategy of keeping a “basic shelf” of ingredients with which participants learn to create a variety of nutritious and affordable meals.
Lunches on a Budget: Learn how to get the most bang for your buck when making school lunches while making healthier choices for you children
Make & Take: A six week program to learn to live a little thriftier by making household items such as soap, laundry soap, dryer sheets, all purpose cleaner etc. You get to make them and take them home.
Men's Support Group: Men aren’t supposed to need to express their feelings the way that women do. They are not supposed to worry about relationships. They are not supposed to be sensitive to emotions - theirs or anyone else’s. In the stereotypical way we think of men, men are supposed to worry about the money. Women are supposed to worry about the kids.
The problem is: none of that is true and it's time to break the stereotype.
Support groups can provide support, encouragement, and accountability when men are challenging themselves, learning new ways of thinking and acting, and breaking life-long habits. Topics can include but not limited to: stress management, trauma, anxiety, depression, learning to say “No”, coping skills and strategies.
Grandparents as Parents: It has been said that every time a child is born, a grandparent is born as well. These days, the role grandparents play is becoming increasingly significant. Instead of occasional visits from their grandchildren, many grandparents have taken on the role of primary parents.
Sometimes referred to as kinship caregivers, these grandparents take in and raise children who can no longer live with their parents for a variety of reasons, including substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty and teenage pregnancy. However, grandparents can face formidable challenges. In addition to the ongoing stress and responsibility of raising young children, these grandparents must cope with modest retirement incomes and lack of access to public assistance.
Grandparents as Parents is a peer support group where you can find others in similar situations and find refuge in each other's advice and presence. Childcare is provided.
Resume/Job: Help: Are you currently unemployed or would like a job change? Come to our weekly Resume help/ Job search. We can assist you with resume building or simply updating your current resume. We will have advertised job postings to review. We will help determine what jobs would suit your current qualifications.