Periwinkle Playgroup: Our Trial Class

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. 

School holidays playgroup: Making sushi and other activities.

Salam to all,

Tuesday, 6th April 2010
@10 a.m.

We had a really nice playgroup session  at our house today. There were about five mommies and 10 children took part in the session. (Each mommies have two children) They are about the same age ranges from 7 years old to almost 2.There were Hanna with her daughter, Aisya and son Adam, Hanani with her daughter Najihah and son Najmi, Sazlina with her daughter Aisyah Nur and son Aiman, Adibah with her daughters Farah and Sarah and me with my daughters.  Our main activity was making sushi but we also had colouring, drawing, decorating balloons and face painting activities.

We started of with free activities when the children warming up with each other. (some of them are still new here). While the children were playing, the mommies were busy in the kitchen preparing the ingredients of making sushi. Of course we had to cook the sushi rice, cut the vegetables (we used cucumber and carrots) and mixed smoked salmon (the canned pink salmon) with some mayonnaise. Hanna (one of the mothers) asked our children to gather in the living room and made them busy with drawing, colouring and decorating some balloons.

By the time all the sushi ingredients were ready, our children just finished doing the crafts. We took out the ingredients and we started our main activity which was making sushi. According to this website, we made the Futomaki Sushi (large Maki roll with many different ingredients) and Oshizushi Sushi (vinegar rice with other ingredients pressed into a mold). There were two experts that used to live in Japan when they were doing their first degree who told us (the other mommies) about the other types of sushi. So, we were actually sharing our knowledge about sushi among other topics. hehe.

The bigger kids were the ones who got so excited to try their hands on making sushi. They really listened to our instructions and were quite patient. When they had finished making at least a roll each, they can't wait to try the sushi. I helped them to cut their Maki Sushi and they looked so happy when they were able to try their creations. It didn't take long until most of the kids tried to make their own sushi. We, the mommies had to finish making more rolls and the Oshizushi Sushi when the children just left to resume with their own kind of play. Well, as my daughters has had accumulated a number of toys, the children were happily created their own play theme. At one time, they played in Fathini's princess hide out (a collapsible small hut/tent) and then moved on to building something with the huge blocks.

After the sushi rolls were all ready, it was time to have our lunch. We had various types of food since we combined the sushi with some readily prepared food like A Morning Sticky Rice (literally translated into B.I. atau sebenarnya ore kelate panggil Pulut Pagi), Some Dried Anchovy Fritters (cucur ikan bilis),  Tuna Pizza (from Hanna) and the desserts from Hanani- Lychee puddings. Our children didn't really sit and eat as they always couldn't wait to go back and play. Thus, only the mommies who really enjoyed the food while chatting and gossiping. takdelah mengumpat sesiapa pun. hehe Only after we said that if they (the children) wanted to try the Lychee Puddings, they had to finished eating first, our children then came back and at least ate something. They were thrilled to be able to received a small container each that had the Lychee Puddings. 

Our last activity for the day was face painting. We thought that we didn't want to proceed with that but Fathini reminded me about my promise. I told them we could do a face painting at the end. By that time it was almost 1 o'clock. So, we had to quickly helped our children to paint their faces as our initial plan was to have a two-hour playgroup session. Our children had their own ideas on how we (the mommies) should paint their faces. Some even attempted to draw on their own by looking into a  mirror. By 1.30 p.m., most of them left our house and we agreed to at least have another playgroup next week.

Playgroup is back!

Most people here are busy with x-mas celebration as it was just around the corner. But us (some Msians here) are busy planning our playgroup! One of my msians friend here has been asking for me to organize playgroup for our kids especially for SAHM here to have social interaction at least once a week. Thus yesterday, 21 Dec 2009, we had our first playgroup for this school holiday. The theme was about "Camping".

I reckon I need to explain a little bit about the concept of "playgroup" before I tell what happened during our first session of playgroup for this school holiday.

Playgroup is an informal session where parents, carers, babies and children aged 0 to school age come together in a relaxed and friendly environment.

Playgroup gives children an opportunity to:

• have fun,
  
• make new friends, and
  
• develop new skills through informal play.

Playgroup provides parents and carers with:

• an opportunity to meet other parents and carers,
  
• make friends, and
  
• share ideas and experiences.

Playgroup also allows parents and carers to:

• spend quality time with their children,
  
• encouraging, helping or simply playing with their children.

Playgroups are:

• not-for-profit,
• are run by, and for the parents who attend.
  
• usually held once a week for a two hour session,
• held in a variety of venue.

 from this source: http://www.playgroupaustralia.com.au/act/go/what-is-playgroup

The playgroup started at 10 a.m. Hanna and Adibah were the first to arrived here (at my house). Hanna brought a small plastic house and another pop-up house for the kids. Their kids; Aisya, Little Adam, Farah and Sarah were busy helping Hanna to put up the house. Fathini and Hafizah were busy bringing all of their toys out into the garden. I took out some stuffs for our "fairy bread" sandwich and fruit kebabs.

Few minutes later, more and more came and the last ones were my friend Cindy (from Peachgrove playcentre) came with her daughters; Felisa and Tahlia. Before this I called our playgroup as "Malaysian playgroup" but since this time we have Cindy who is Chinese (originally from China but had been here for 8 years!), I would just called our playgroup as "school holiday playgroup".

So, what do we do during this playgroup session? Well, during the first hour, we just let the kids to play in the tent and the toy houses. The moms were busy chatting and gossipping. bukan mengumpat sesiapa pun cuma cerita hal masing. When our kids started to feel hungry, we asked them to make some "fairy bread". There were only Fathini, Farah, Sarah, Aisya and Hafizah who were interested to make their "fairy bread". The other kids just engrossedly busy playing and pretending to be at a  camp site."Fairy bread" is actually a simple sandwich bread that had been cut into different shapes using the cookie cutters, been spreaded with some table spread and dipped into some sprinkles. I managed to make some "fairy bread" to other kids as I wanted to make sure that everybody could try it.  tu pun ada mak2 lain yg tolong buat sekali sbb diaorg pun teringin nak mkn jugak.hehe

Somehow we managed to get every kids to be involved in making fruit kebabs. They made special fruit kebabs as there were bananas, apples, mangos, tomatoes, carrots and fries (courtesy of Adibah).
It was so fun to see how they had their own ideas on which fruits they wanted and how their moms gave the freedom for them to choose. Though Hafizah was somehow felt left out after I forgot about her! terukkan mak Hafizah ni I had to asked Hafizah to join us making fruit kebabs and actually helped her out to make a few fruit kebabs.

   

We proceeded to our next and last activity which was "finding some treasures". Actually the treasures were the cherry plums on the plum trees. I asked all the big kids (the 4 & 5- year- old kids) to follow me to find some treasures hidden in the bush behind the huge tree. Again, I forgot about Hafizah! She cried right after I said "Ok kids, who want to find some treasures!". sebenarnya smlm tu dia dah penat main dan dah mengantuk I had to get Hafizah and carried her along while showing the other kids where to find some treasures. They seemed so excited when I asked them to look around and tell me if they had found teh treasures. Finally, when we reached at the biggest cherry pllum tree, I asked them to look up and find "red treasures". Some looked puzzled and some screamed and said they had spotted the treasures! Not long after that, some mums joined me at plum tree and plucked some plums to be brought back home. seronok tengok mak2 yg tukang petik, lps tu anak2 tukang bubuh plum dlm plastik Our playgroup ended just before 12 o'clock. I guess all the moms and their kids felt happy and had so much fun together. They helped me to packed things up before they left. We definitely going to have another one on Thursday (24 Dec) where we are going to have a trip to Parana Park.