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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Playgroup- How to set up a simple and enjoyable playgroup. (based on my own experience)

Salam,

I've been received some feedback lately by some bloggers and non-bloggers (most of them are from other countries) about my entries on playgroup that I used to organized when I was in NZ. Right now, I myself miss those times when I had the supporting groups of friends and also the luxury of time to organize playgroups that can be beneficial for our children.

Based on my experiences and from what I've learned (thanks to Peachgrove playcentre), before we  can set up a playgroup, we need to think and consider about these things:
  • who are the children and how many children that will join the playgroup?
  • what are the activities for the children? (it's better be somehow some structures)
  • how long will we conduct the playgroup?
  • who are the parents that voluntarily in charged? 
The simplest way to create a mini playgroup is just to find some parents who share the same interests and then we have to sit together with those parents to discuss the other details. Having a preliminary session for maybe 1/2 hour to see how well the children can interact with each other. It is also advisable to find make sure that the children are about the same age or at least the age gap is just between 2-3 years.

Hopefully this short entry could help those who are interested to know more about playgroup. I myself are thinking about conducting a talk or a sharing session with other parents about this. Insyaallah maybe in the near future I would love to do that. 

11 comments:

isabelle said...

kalo i x keje, harus la i suka conduct gak benda alah mcm ni. fun kan?knur rajinnya nak conduct benda2 mcm ni.

Hanz Jamaludin said...

K.Nur..lemme know if we can JV.I did playgroup once dolu2 but berenti bcoz commitmet from parents is hard to get..i suspect reason being offered free..malaysian normally can commit when pay-up & money involved.

transformed housewife said...

Isabelle- dah mmg minat knur. masa kat NZ banyak belajar dr org2 kiwi.

transformed housewife said...

hanz- Insya Allah.. bagus jugak kalau boleh JV dgn Hanz.

Ariff Khalid said...

Hi Sayang. It's me, your hubby. Here are some observations (I'm a scientist after all) I made after watching my wife conduct many playgroups.


1. A strong group leader is a must. Without it, the playgroup will degrade into anarchy.

2. There must be an agreed rules of behaviour for kids, and it must be enforced by all parents.

3.There must be several structured activities but they should come in small sized time chunks.

4. There should also be some unstructured "free-play" time slots where the kids are free to use their imagination.

5. The entire thing should be "near-free" in terms of cost. I get irritated when my wife told me that playgroups in Malaysia cost a lot of money. All you need are inexpensive things like colour pencils, recycled paper, plasticine, glue etc. Each parent should bring their own food and share to buy the supplies for the activities.

6. Keep it small. From what I have seen, the best number of kids is around 3 to 6. Any bigger, and it becomes a party, not a playgroup.

7. Keep it exclusive/invitational only. This way, the parents will value it more and treat it as a learning opportunity for their kids and themselves instead of just another nursery to leave their kids.

8. Related to above, the full involvement of parents is compulsory to make it work. Playgroups are not substitutes to Daycare.

I'm sure, my wife will add more to my observations. Ok. Back to my microscope and microorganisms.

Wan Anie said...

saya ada juga terfikir utk kita gather2 buat playgroup, dan saya memang tahu Nur boleh

InsyaAllah saya pun berminta nak join... maklumlah duk jauh dari org lain.

Unknown said...

tips yg berguna.. tp kat area rumah kakyong ni payah sikit la nak arrange.. sbb nanti mak2 nya pakat dok bersembang sambil sesekala jeling anak2 main... hahaha....

best kalo dpt join proper playgroup.. boleh gain pengalaman baru...

transformed housewife said...

thanks sayang for ur valuable comments.

transformed housewife said...

Anie, Insya Allah. Benda ni kena rancang betul2 baru jd elok.

Unknown said...

bertuah nya adyani... ur hubby suggestion memang very gud.. kalo la boleh buat some xtvt mcm ni di Ipoh... hmmm, rasanya kena cari2 mummy blogger area Ipoh ni...

transformed housewife said...

kyong boleh cari kwn2 yg boleh bg komitmen sbb nak buat playgroup ni kena ada komitmen dr ibubapa yg terlibat.