Playcentre research

http://www.playcentre.org.nz/research.php?id=7

A link to this for those interested in Playcentres and Early Childhood Education:

Supporting Playcentre in the 21st Century

30/09/2008

The authors: Bernard and Maureen Woodhams, Woodhams Research Associates

Overview

Playcentre is a unique part of the early childhood education (ECE) and family support sectors. It provides holistic programmes based around the whole family, rather than just the child and where education is seen as an integral part of life rather than something that occurs only in an institutional context.

The purpose of this report is to provide a factual basis for understanding the needs of Playcentre and suggestions on how the Government and Playcentre Federation can support Playcentres and ensure their long term viability.

The first chapter of the report provides background on Playcentre and how it works. The second and third chapters outline the results of our research on the costs of providing Playcentre, and the issues currently affecting centres and the Playcentre movement. The report concludes with recommendations.

Some of the most interesting stuff in this report isn't actually referred to in this overview: (for example, the arguably systemic devaluing of full-time parenting as a legitimate and valid choice).

Of course, it normally looks like this.

Take a look at this photo (admittedly a couple of weeks old now). It is approximately five past six in the evening. Observe the clean and uncluttered floor. Note the large pile of washing which is not on the couch, but which instead is sitting folded in drawers. See the small girl luxuriating in the unrestricted rolling space.

Sadly, yes this was worth taking a photo of!

Able I was.....

...ere I saw Elba.

Our latest acquisition is installed in the kitchen after the last fridge/freezer threatened to die (and had a funny smell).

I do not know why it is named after a Tuscan island.

A Busy Day for the Suburban Housewife

Busy busy.

Get children ready to leave the house.

Drop first born at school. Drop second born at another Playcentre Mum's house to take on the Playcentre trip. Take third born to Playcentre with me. Work at Playcentre. Clean Playcentre in the wake of my toddler tornado. Drive to library A to return overdue books and pay fines. Drive to library B to return overdue books and pay fines. (Note: We don't do overdues here. No, really, we don't. I can't believe the system fell over....).

Anyway. Drive to central city suburb. Find park miles away from house. Walk to house to collect second born. Have to have a wee sit down. Gratefully accept invitation to lunch.

Home again, child wrangle, doze on chair with two sleeping children draped over me. Wake two sleeping children. Drag crying children into car. Extract children from car. Collect first born from school with minutes to spare.

Feed and water children, send first born to room to calm down. Clean thrown milk off floor, table and boy. Tackle breakfast dishes. Wash struggling toddler's face and hands. Change struggling toddler's nappy and top. Back into town. Collect Playcentre photocopying. Walk to Brendon's work. Supervise three excited children in work lobby. Distract toddler from throwing pebbles (resident in attractive child-height planter boxes) and sticking hands in automatic doors.

Man takes children home while I indulge in the Rites of Spring (that would be the seasonal wax of the winter coat). Yes, ripping the hair off my body counts as adult leisure time.

Bus home. Eat the remains of the family's fish and chip dinner. Forget to do Playcentre reports due that day.

Father Christmas and Al Gore

Last night we started watching An Inconvenient Truth. (Yeah, yeah, a few years after everyone else, but you get that!)

Aidan was having trouble sleeping. He came and watched too, dozing on Brendon and I.

Later I asked him what he had learned:

"I learned that fire burns people and then they die".

Mmm. Anything else?

"A polar bear was swimming in the ocean and it tried to get on the little bits of ice but they melted and it went down down to the bottom of the ocean. And it might see a seal! And Father Christmas!"

Well, with all that dialogue about the North Pole, it is only natural that a sleepy four year old might get a little confused!

Veteraning

This morning we attended a Veterans' session at Playcentre. Veterans' sessions are designed for Playcentre graduates and their families to come back and feel the Playcentre love! It was really well attended today, with a lovely mix of children from babies to quite big kids, free-playing together. I whispered to my mate that this looked like some people's home-schooling dream!

It gave me immense pleasure to watch Isabelle paint. She completed many works, which are still drying at the Centre. She worked with passion and with intense concentration, sometimes frowning, her mouth wide in an "o" of concentration. She mixed colours, painted circles, and covered the paper entirely as she made representation after representation. Later, she played in gloop, shrieking with excitement as she ran around the Centre in the misty rain and wild wind, a strange, sticky, purple, glittery substance dripping slowly from her ear. (This was the girl who said she did not require a change of clothing, as she would not get messy).

Aidan's usual playmates weren't in attendance. He made an amazing block construction (Darth Vader's ship) which I photographed for my upcoming blocks workshop. He face painted himself as an orange tiger. He threw bean bags (and other stuff, but thankfully mainly bean bags...). He painted on the other side of the easel to Isabelle (often annoying her with his flick painting technique!). He mixed blue and purple. "Look Mummy!", he shouted to me from across the room, "I've made indigo! Blue and purple makes indigo!". He mixed it up with the big boys, sharing the train set and mobilo, and hiding out in the Wendy house.

Orla enjoyed playdough and pompoms, rocking horse and roly pops, observed her companions and washed her hands many times. I was amazed that she picked today as the second day of her life that she opted out of a nap.

I however opted in. Once home, after showering all three, feeding everyone, getting a meal into the slow cooker so that we could eat at a reasonable hour (Isabelle's ballet from 4.30-5.30 makes this otherwise difficult), I was exhausted. I dozed in my chair. The children buzzed around me, playing a complicated game about diamond castles, magic necklaces and mirrors (inspired by - dare I admit it - the latest Barbie movie).

I am looking forward to collecting all the dry art from the Centre tomorrow.

Taking matters into your own hands

Isabelle has been growing out her fringe for a while now. It was quite long, but still not quite long enough to go back into her pony tail.

Well, it appears that as of this afternoon, she just couldn't wait any longer for it to grow out...

Farewell ER!

Another bike has left the stable - this time my Suzuki ER 185. Fortunately it has gone to a good home (we sold it to another Playcentre family). I hope it has a long enough lifespan to justify the price (which I'm confident it will, given the low price and good performance so far).

The ER has been to a few places. Notable jaunts have included a hair-raising trail ride in the Wairarapa which took me to the limits of my abilities (and a bit beyond!). I remember tearing downhill on one section and seeing a very sharp right hand bend, realising that I was not going to make it and just dropping the bike. It skidded to a halt at the edge of the trail, beyond which was a sizeable (unfenced) drop over a cliff. It didn't take long to right the bike again and restart down the track at a very conservative pace.

The ER and I have been on the junior motorcross track at Taupo, and a long way towards the Bridge to Nowhere.

However, this was all a long time ago now and the bike has been gathering dust and taking up space in a full garage. So it was time to let it go.

The Jawa is now for sale too - when it goes we'll just have the two road bikes left.