The popular Toddler Tuesdays craft, storytime and animal program @ Oatland Island Wildlife Center is about to get better.

Starting Tues. Sept. 16, Toddler Tuesdays will feature more age appropriate activities on alternating weeks.

• Each month, the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of the month will be more appropriate for 6 month-2 year olds.

• The 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month will be more appropriate for 3-4 year olds.

• On the rare 5th weeks of each month, the program will be appropriate for all ages

Of course, all toddler ages from 6 months-4 years are welcome to attend any of the programs! Toddler Tuesdays is from 10:30-11:15 am every Tuesday. It’s free with regular admission to Oatland Island Wildlife Center.

Dates, ages and topics are also posted on Oatland’s Web site. Click here.

Starting Sept. 15, Telfair Museum of Art will offer youth studio art classes for a variety of age levels, including as young as 5. Check out all the classes by clicking here.

Sessions include:

• Home-school art: painting – art fundamentals for Savannah-area home-schooled children.
• Photography, drawing, mixed media.
• Multi-media Saturday series – painting, sculpture and drawing.

To register, call 912.790.8823.

Don’t forget, the next Toddler Third Thursday @ Telfair’s Jepson Center of the Arts is 10-11:30 am Sept. 18. Toddler Third Thursday is designed for preschoolers ages 3-5 and their adult companions.

Toddlers explore artwork and partake in a fun-filled art project relating to their tour. Colors, shapes and material vocabulary are encouraged. Each month brings a different tour and project. This month’s is s farms and barns art activity based on the work of William Christenberry.

Kids also get time to play in the ArtZeum, the Jepson’s interactive children’s section, and can take home their art masterpieces. Admission is $4 per child with adult admission fee. Call 912.790.8823 to register.

Bang your drum, shake your tambourine, sing and dance with your child at one of the Kindermusik classes that start next week in Savannah, Richmond Hill, Wilmington Island, The Landings and Rincon.

There’s still time to sign up for this early childhood music program. Registration includes your own Kindermusik CD so you can continue the dancing at home.

Attention work-outside-the-home SouthernMamas who have difficulty finding weekend mommy-and-me activities: Saturday Kindermusik sessions will be offered in Savannah, starting Sept. 20!

Kindermusik classes are available for children ages 0 to 7. Classes are divided by age including the “Zoom Buggy and Dream Pillow” class for ages 0-20 months; “Milk and Cookies” for ages 18 months to 3.5 years; “Hello Weather, Let’s Play Together” for ages 3 to 5; and Family Time classes for newborns to 7 year-olds and the whole family.

Kindermusik also has a baby sign language class, “Sign and Sing,” for hearing children ages 6 months to 36 months and their parents. You and your child will learn over 150 signs to help you communicate.

Browse the local Kindermusik Web site and register for the Fall’08 session. Be sure to tell them SouthernMamas sent you!

Learn about a new early childhood music program @ an open house, 5-7 pm. Thurs. Sept. 4 @ Trinity Lutheran Church, 12391 Mercy Blvd. on Savannah’s southside.

Vicki Mills, who has a masters in vocal performance and more than 20 years of experience teaching children, offers early childhood music for ages newborn to 8. Classes begin Sept. 25 and are held Thursday @ Trinity Lutheran Church.

At the open house, you will be able to experience a FREE demo class @ 5:30 pm. Come dressed to move with your newborn to 5-year-old. There will also be drawings every half hour of instruments, CDs and reduced tuition. Those who register @ the open house receive 10 percent off tuition.

To find out more about class times, contact Vicki @ MakeAJoyfulNoiseMusicStudio@comcast.net or call 912.920.6542.

Time to register for fall Kindermusik sessions, which start after Labor Day in Savannah, Richmond Hill, Wilmington Island, The Landings and Rincon.

Attention work-outside-the-home SouthernMamas who have difficulty finding weekend mommy-and-me activities: Saturday Kindermusik sessions will be offered in Savannah, starting Sept. 20!

Kindermusik classes are available for children ages 0 to 7. Classes are divided by age including the “Zoom Buggy and Dream Pillow” class for ages 0-20 months; “Milk and Cookies” for ages 18 months to 3.5 years; “Hello Weather, Let’s Play Together” for ages 3 to 5; and Family Time classes for newborns to 7 year-olds and the whole family.

Kindermusik also has a baby sign language class, “Sign and Sing,” for hearing children ages 6 months to 36 months and their parents. You and your child will learn over 150 signs to help you communicate.

Browse the local Kindermusik Web site and register for the Fall’08 session. Be sure to tell them SouthernMamas sent you!

Popular Thursday morning story and sing-along time @ Bull Street Library goes on summer holiday this week until after Labor Day.

So what’s a mom to do come Thursday morning? Check out Squats N’ Tots – a mommy-and-me fitness class held every Thursday, 11:30 am-12:15 pm @ the Heart & Lung Building, Suite 120, on the Candler Hospital campus, 5353 Reynolds St.

The class helps stretch and strengthen overused body parts, as well as focus on muscle endurance, low impact aerobics and abdominal work. Babies ages 6 weeks to 1 year can participate or watch sitting next to Mom. To pre-register, call 912.819.6463.

If you often wonder whether your “mom rules” make sense and how to best implement them, then check out the Parenting with Dignity seminar, 7 pm Tues. Sept. 9 @ the Jewish Educational Alliance, 5111 Abercorn St.

The FREE two-hour parent coaching session is open to the public and sponsored by the Clinical Social Work Association of Savannah and Jewish Family Services.

It’s a chance to compare or discuss your parenting techniques and strategies with a clinically trained parenting professional and other parents. Presenter Helen D. Schandolph, LCSW has over 12 years experience in assisting families and their young, adolescent & adult children how to communicate, compromise and conciliate; and, as a result, function most optimally.

The learning objectives for the program are:

Learn to objectively assess your parenting style.
Explore the foundations of your thoughts and feelings about parenting.
Determine whether your parenting style is the most effective.
Learn skills to identify & cope with difficult emotions associated with parenting.
Learn to respect yourself as a parent and feel more comfortable in a parental role.

For more info, call 912.355.8111.

The foreboding fall doesn’t have to signal a swimming hiatus for your kids.

The Chatham County Aquatic Center offers swim lessons, teams and camps during even the coldest months. Find out more about Starfish Swim School classes and the Savannah swim team @ a Parents Open House. It will be 6-8 pm Thurs. Aug. 21 at the indoor swim center @ 7420 Sallie Mood Drive.

Deadline for registration for swim classes is Aug. 29!! So don’t delay.

A variety of classes are offered, including Starbabies for ages 6 months to 36 months. That class helps such very young children develop a high comfort level in the water while at the same time training parents in water safety. One parent must be in the water with each child. Be prepared for lots of singing (“Splashes. Splashes. We all blow bubbles….”) Sessions offered include Tuesdays/Thursdays or Saturdays. Click here for the fall class schedule.

Other classes include:

SeaSprites for ages 3-5: swim skills through creative water activities.
SeaStars for ages 6-8: core swimming skills and the opportunity to progress to advanced strokes;
SwimStars for ages 9 and older: swimming skills, water safety, water sports and adventure learning activities.
StrokeStars for any age that meets the skills requirement: refine freestyle and learn stroke technique for backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and more.
AngelFish program for special-needs children

Classes cost $50 for non members and $45 for non-member consecutive session/second child; $38 for members and $33 for member consecutive session/second child. Call 912.652.6793. Learn more by clicking here.