New English Sing and Sign classes in Copenhagen

Posted on August 22, 2017 by dejligedays

I was recently approached by a lady called Maya who is launching an English language Sing and Sign class in Vesterbro starting on September 7th. Sing and Sign is a baby signing course. I asked her to share a little bit about Sing and Sign here as I thought it would be really interesting to a lot of readers.

Learn baby signing with Sing and Sign

Both I and my children loved Sing and Sign! Because it teaches all the signs through songs and music, it makes learning them seem easy and lots of fun. Some of the songs are written especially for the course which makes it easy to include signs which relate to your everyday life with your baby, and that’s what makes it so useful; there’s a lovely song about changing your baby’s nappy, about bath time, about going to the park etc. The classes are themed, and the signs are introduced gradually. This way, by the end of the 10 week course, you have actually covered more than 100 signs without really thinking about it. However – and this really appealed to me at times – each week also focuses on just a couple of essential signs (such as ‘eat’, ‘drink’ or ‘help’) so that even frazzled parents who haven’t slept for two days feel they can walk away from class with something.

The S&S approach is that baby signing is meant to be simple, relaxed and fun, and each class always follows the same pattern so that your baby quickly feels comfortable with the format and start to anticipate what exciting thing happens next …..perhaps the instruments, the peek-a-boo box with Jessie Cat, the props bag or the picture board.After moving back to Copenhagen last year, I met several English speaking mums who said they would love to do a baby signing class if only classes were available in English. At home we were still listening to the Sing and Sign CD, and my three-year-old daughter would from time to time ask for the DVD, and as I still found myself singing along to the songs and throwing the odd sign in, I decided to look into buying the franchise. I am now the proud owner of Sing and Sign Copenhagen and will start classes in early September 2017. I’m so excited to be able to share my passion for baby signing with other parents this way, and hope to see lots of lovely mums, dads and babies in my classes!

First class: Thursday 7th September 2017 for 10 weeks (school term time only) at Idrætsfabrikken, Valdemarsgade 12, Copenhagen V.
All classes are taught in English.
Two classes available; Thursdays at 9.45am-10.45am and 11.00am-12pm. Age group 6-14 months.
Price; 950kr including a year’s membership of Sing and Sign Online.
Lovely small classes – only 10 mums/dads/guardians plus babies per class.

For more information please visit facebook.com/singandsigncopenhagen or www.singandsign.com then choose Copenhagen under Classes near you.

Experimentarium reopens in Hellerup

Posted on February 6, 2017 by dejligedays

The Danish hand-on science museum known as Experimentarium reopened at its old site in Hellerup (close to the Waterfront Shopping) at the end of January. Since it opened we have been four times, it’s that good. We bought a season pass and now have visited enough times to make the remainder of the year free. img_7489-1

I wrote about the place with a lot of detail here on The Local.

But I thought I’d share some of our highlights and advice from visiting. So highlights – the new ball run that allows you to choose different ways to send cargo and it great fun. A bit hard to describe but believe me its is great. The ship area with room where you can experience wind up to almost hurricane strength. The newly expanded water area is fun too. On the second floor there is the construction zone and bubble area, perfect for younger visitors.

If you are familiar with Experimentarium at this site from three years ago, many of the old favourites are here, some with expanded experiences. There are also new exhibitions which will keep everyone interested for hours.

Now for the advice. It gets very hot in the building so make sure your children can strip down to a t-shirt or even a vest. This is also valuable when playing in the water areas so their sleeves don’t get soaked.

The season pass is well worth considering as it is very good value and it means that you can pop in to the place for a short time without feeling you have to justify the ticket price.

There is a late night on a Thursday until 8pm and we enjoyed this as it was relatively empty and we could go from one thing to another without waiting. Weekends get very busy however with a season pass to can get in an hour early on weekend days.

The food is expensive and decidedly average plus on Saturday lunch time there was an hour wait for hot food. There is a section of the cafe that it dedicated to packed lunches so this is definitely worth considering. There are also a number of places to eat just next door in Waterfront Shopping and I believe you can get your hand stamped so you can come back in. Make sure you do this or at least check your ticket allows you to come back in afterwards.

I think this place is the perfect location for a great day out for children of all ages.

Visit their website for up to date information

Kreakassen – craft boxes for children

Posted on January 23, 2017 by dejligedays

For those of you with crafty kids living in Denmark, then you will be, undoubtedly, interested in a relatively new concept here called Kreakassen.

Kreakassen is a monthly supply of four creative projects a box including instructions and simple materials. The projects in the box are related to the season or time of the year. This means that Kreakassen has adapted the seasons and festivals and offers creative projects for those times that you and your child would like to do. Kreakassen delivers it all: the ideas, materials (although it does not contain every day crafting materials such as pens, pencils, scissors, glue and brushes – they do see boxes of these too) and instructions so that you can bypass the laborious preparations and jump directly to creating.We were sent a box to try out (a Halloween themed one) and my son loved it. All children are different but Kreakassen is aimed at 4 – 8 years olds, although older children may enjoy the projects and younger ones with more help from an adult. There are four projects in the box – a couple longer projects and the rest quicker ones. All the instructions are pictorial and in Danish but pretty easy to grasp.

You can take out a subscription or buy a box on a monthly basis. Their website (www.kreakassen.dk) has all the details. If they are oversubscribed you can add your name to a waiting list. The website is currently only in Danish but run it through Google Chrome and its all there.

ENIGMA – the new Post and Tele Museum

Posted on January 17, 2017 by dejligedays

If like us you have been missing the Post and Tele Museum since it closed over a year ago, you’ll de delighted to hear that the first phase of its replacement, ENIGMA opened this month. Housed in the old post building in Østerbro close to Trianglen, the first phase is the bottom floor of the building and houses the ENIGMA stage and square.

A quick ‘did you know?’ ENIGMA houses the oldest Enigma machine from the Second World War (seen below).There is an exciting programme of events for both adults and children (in Danish), board games, programmable robots and other family activities, a cafe and also a working post office and citizens’ service (borgerservice) area. You can read much more about it in my article on The Local here and also on the ENIGMA website.