Birth of son inspires new business for South Tyneside mum

Sensory Explorers Gemma Peterson with babies Alauna Moore, Cara Moir and Amelia Crawford at the Charles Young Centre.

Gemma Peterson now runs Sensory Explorers from the Charles Young Centre, in Talbot Road, South Shields.

The 31-year-old decided to make the move from teaching adults to helping babies explore their senses after attending mother and baby groups with her son.

Mrs Peterson, from South Shields, said: “When my son was born I took him to baby groups. Before working with adults, I worked with children, and it was then I realised I wanted to go back to working with little ones.”

The mum-of-one decided to look into launching her own sensory group for babies through to toddlers.

She said: “I wanted to do something different using all the senses. Working as a tutor, I know all about lesson plans and really I just started to build it up from there.

“It has been quite hard but it’s also been successful. Since I launched in March, all the classes have been fully booked.

“I am now into my third term and we have a waiting list for babies, that’s how popular it has become.”

The sessions run on a Thursday between 9.30am and 2pm with a maximum of 20 people per class.

The sessions are suitable for new borns to youngsters up to 23 months.

During sessions, youngsters take part in listening and making music, activities around light, exercises and messy play and puppetry.

Terms run for seven weeks.

The next term is due to start on August 2.

Mrs Peterson said: “After trying to get funding to launch I decided to use my savings to fund the business as it was something I really wanted to do.

“I came up with the idea in the November and by the March I had started holding my first class.

“It has all been a bit of a trial and error and finding my feet to see what works and what doesn’t work and I always seek feedback from the parents.

“The activities are different every week and I’m just really pleased with how it is all going.”

Mrs Peterson was given advice on starting her business from Tedcom, which aims to support and encourage people to turn their business ideas into a reality.

For more information or to book a place, visit the Facebook page www.facebook.com/sensoryexplorers/ and send Mrs Peterson a message.