Some parents enjoy attending playgroup and spending time with their younger child while the older one is attending preschool.
One of the main advantages of playgroup is the early intervention. We can spot any potential issues with children at a very young age, which all the research highlights as beneficial. We work with allied health professionals such as speech therapists and occupational therapists to provide early intervention before the children even reach preschool.
Playgroup also gives educators and teachers a chance to discuss children’s developmental progress and parenting skills with parents attending playgroup. Again, there are benefits of early intervention here.
An oasis
This community suffered a lot during the awful drought, and is now enduring a horrendous mouse plague. This preschool/playgroup centre is a community hub that provides respite. People love coming here. In fact, they’ve asked for the playgroup hours to be extended.
There are plans afoot to develop the outdoor areas to provide a place for playgroup children to play outside, next to the preschool.
I’m not aware of any other playgroup/preschool partnerships like ours. I’ve posted some information about this on Facebook and I’ve received a lot of interest from people wanting to know how we managed to get this working. It’s a such a great stepping stone that could be beneficial in other rural communities.