#OtakiThreads - A year at Otaki Playcentre

A year at Otaki Playcentre Friday, July 4th, 2014 Playcentre for my family started out as a choice borne out of convenience - it was the nearest early learning centre to our house - but over time came to play a large part in our lives, both in terms of our children's development and my wife and I's social life in the town. Like all the best things in life, it requires hard work and no small amount of dedication to some fairly hum drum tasks that have to be done for the good stuff to happen. But what good stuff there is.  As one of our parents said,"Playcentre is the only place where my children dont hear 'no' or 'maybe later' for a few hours a week," and how important this is for a child. At Playcentre, children are free to explore and create in a nurturing environment where they are watched over by their parents and their parents' friends.  They develop empathy for others as the elder children begin to look out for the younger ones. They also begin to develop a strong sense of self through the encouragement received from adults and peers.

Which is not to say that a session at Playcentre is easy....I can't recall many times when I have been so frazzled as when I was carrying my children out of Playcentre around midday on Tuesday and Thursdays last year.  Rarely did we leave with the same amount of lunchboxes or socks as which we arrived with. Many was the time we U-turned our pram to pick up a beloved blanket, or a new, treasured piece of art.  But when the dust settled, and I viewed images such as those collected here, all of me knew our children were in the right place, learning to be kind, happy, healthy and creative.  And what more could a parent want?