Playcentre Mums

Who here is a playcentre mum?

Do you like playcentre? Do your children?

I take DD to playcentre each week sometimes twice a week. She loves it. Im so glad i take her

Lily starts space on the 19th July, I can't wait!

Iv just enrolled, something i have always been interested in, so exciting now we can really get into it. DS loves it too, as soon as we get out of the car hes running to start painting. Plus its fun letting him get messy and not having to worry about the house getting trashed.

We have been at PC for just over a year now and I love it and so do the boys. I have just started co-leading a session this term. Our PC is great as there is no pressure to attend a certain number of sessions, and there is a nice balance of Mum-time for gssiping, talking, discussioning issues etc and spending time with your kids.
And it is great they can get messy there, so don't have to worry about lpaydough, clay, paint etc at home

What age do kids start to get benefit out of playcentre? I couldn't get to SPACE because of the time it ran but am considering playcentre.

I was a playcentre kid, and my Mum was a playcentre educator (paid) til my youngest brother was in the middle of high school.

I tried the whole playcentre thing but it didn't really work out for me. I have to take my Daughter somewhere that I can attend with her as she is extremely shy and needs me there as her confidence builds (hopefully by kindy age!), but the whole concept of having to do courses and go to meetings etc wasn't what I wanted - I am busy enough in my own life between running a home business and being a full time Mother and any spare time I have is for me and DH to enjoy! I would rather have somewhere that you paid extra but they had employed people to take care of the 'nitty gritty'. Basically daycare, but one that I could attend too! I found the facilities good in one way, heaps to do - painting, waterplay, sandpit, climbing apparatus, toys, books, etc, but I also found everything to be quite filthy and dirty - I think this is partly because it is a parent co-operative and relies mostly on the parents cleaning up after each session which is done rather half heartedly. I found that the long term parents were in quite a tight group and I were quite different to me so I didn't really fit in as such. I can totally see the value for some people though and think that it is a great community service. For me though in the end it was better to take my Daughter to other activities such as Mainly Music, jumping beans, rhythm & rhyme etc as there is no obligation other than turning up and paying the fee!

Newlywed - the only structure to our sessions is that morning tea is at 10am (ish), the kids all sit down together and eat, at our centre you put you name down and take turns bringing a few nibbles for the parents for morning tea (one of my favourite parts!). Oh and we do a session evaluation at the end which takes about 10mins
I share the lead responsibilities with a friend which makes it easier. It isn't very hard. We have to read the notices at morning tea time, make sure we haven't got too many people as we are only licensed for a certain number of kids per session, organise a trip per term (could be just down to the local park), organise a fire drill. But some of that can be delegated anyway. Not really too hard.

Lulu - I suppose alot of that depends on the centre you go to. Our PC is very clean. We do a full clean at the end of each term e.g. every single block is cleaned, plus we all clean up at the end of the session and it is done really well.
Our PC isn't too strict on the training, I didn't complete Course 1 till the end of my 3rd term and it was really easy as the workshops were all during session times so they had extra parents in to help look after your kids while you did the workshop, and of course I could step away if the boys needed me.

I think that every PC is different and if you really want to go to one it may pay to check out a few different ones to see which one fits you best (if at all)

I took DD2 to playcentre for 9 months and she did really enjoy it... we moved areas so was too far to attend the old PC and I'm still deciding whether I can be bothered going to the one near us now... I was a bit over the pressure to attend meetings, fundraisers, all the cleaning up in the holidays, working bees and courses... but in other ways it was great as my DD is rather shy too and was nice for her to have me there....

remember that there are different people on different days so check out all sessions that suit your week and see what group you get on with better.

I am a Playcentre Mum and I just really really love it. I had attended two different ones part of two different associations (we moved house and area) and can say it really differs from centre to centre as well as your session to session.

And it really depends on who is the parents and the kids involved. It is all centred around free play and child's free choice.

So most of your activities is available on each session and it is the parents responsibilities to extend the kids on session.

My old centre had an over 4 year old group so did more structured activities with the kids and it was a drop off session.

My new centre have the same. Extended sessions for over 3's. It is two days a week and it is a lot more structured but still around child choice. I absolutely love it.

Andrew has gone the first time in when he was 2 days old (just a quick visit though) and been a full time PC kid since 3 weeks. He absolutely lap every moment up. He definately gets to experience things that I would not normally do at home.