Baby boosters vs play partners!

When Charlotte was just a tiny tiny 5lb peanut we met some excellent neighbors and friends that told us about the library's baby boosters program. Charlotte has been going since she was 1 month old! 

When I was on maternity leave and working at my old job we went every Tuesday morning at the Arbutus library to  sing, play, and read with other babies and parents.  It's a lot of fun! 

Well this weekend we tried the Howard County libraries version, play partners! Here is my review! 

Proximity: arbutus library will always win because I can walk to it! But the elkridge branch was only six minutes away, so it's just as close to the Catonsville library, only it has better parking! 

Activities: I must say they are fairly equal, but I liked Howard county better! When we arrived they had a ton of stuffed animals already out on the carpet to keep my mover and shaker busy until it started or during a time when she couldn't see the books!  The format is fairly similar! Arbutus always has bubbles, but Catonsville does not and Charlotte loves bubbles! Howard co. Had a big fan that had a bubble wand in front of it creating lots of bubbles she chased around!

Welcome: Baltimore county library takes it because they introduce each baby by name! I missed that at the Howard county library! 

Accessibility: Howard county takes it all the way! They offer play partners several times a week and some of those are on weekends and evenings during the week! It makes it easy for a working mom to participate. Arbutus offers no weekend or evening baby boosters and Catonsville has Saturday classes once a month.  The other difference is that at arbutus and Catonsville you have to register to attend and it's often full.  During spring break I tried to register for arbutus's program and it was full and we couldn't go, we did get into the Catonsville one that week though! Elkridge you do not have to register, which I thought would make it very crowded, but it was no more full than the arbutus one! I think it's because they offer so many, we went to the Saturday 10:15 one and they also had one at 11:15

Overall they are fairly similar, but Howard county wins for their accessibility!! It's no matter because this summer I plan to go to all of them as much as possible, because its fun, FREE and educational! 

In addition to play partners Howard county library has a ton of other programs for kids we will be checking out so stay tuned!!