JERICHO ECHO ARTICLE

Jericho Playgroup

Activities for children

December 1984

Every Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday the Jericho Playgroup meets in the new Jericho Community Institute. The sessions start at 9:30am and finish around 11:30, and are supervised by two paid workers. Jenny Lewis (Cert. Ed) and myself. At the moment the number of children who attend varies between six and fifteen. The activities for the children include music and dancing, painting, gluing, playdough and our latest acquisition - a sand-pit. For the gluing we use 'rubbish' such as egg cartons, toilet rolls, milk-bottle tops and pie dishes. We have also brought dried leaves and washed out egg-shells which the children enjoy using to make collages. The notice-board in the playroom is decorated with a colourful progression of the children's masterpieces! Parents can stay for all or part of the session, and we are always grateful for their help.

The institute cafe provides special price tea and coffee for the adults and the children have milk or juice and biscuits about half way through the morning. Of course, if they prefer, parents can leave their child-(ren) in our care, if they are 2 years old or more. Usually the minimum age for unaccompanied children at a playgroup is 3 years, but when our group was first established in the 1960s we obtained a special concession allowing us to admit 2 year-olds.

However we are very keen to develop as a mother and toddler group as well as a playgroup and will welcome parents with children of any age. The group is self-funding and therefore a charge is made towards our running costs. (Present and prospective members of the group can refer to Cheryl, our treasurer, for a breakdown of these costs). The contribution we ask for is £1 per session for leaving a child in our care, 85p for a child accompanied by a mother or father, and 35p for each extra child (brother or sister).

The group is run by a committee and parents are more than welcome to take part and attend the meetings. Anyone who is interested in joining the group can contact Jenny (513173) or Sandi (50789) or we hope you will feel free to come along to any of the sessions to see for yourselves what we get up to. We will give a friendly welcome, and if you come at around 1 0: 30 you can even be sure of a cup of tea. Finally, we would like to thank the members of the group for all their help and support and hope we can continue to rely on it. Thanks to April and June for their kind support too!

Author: Val Wilson


This article appeared in Jericho Echo No 25, Dec 1984.