skippy Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Hi We have been thinking of inviting parents to stay and play for a session. I just wondered if anyone has done this and if so how did you organise it and what sort of activities did you do with the parents? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wookie Posted November 7, 2015 Share Posted November 7, 2015 Hi part of the Furniture We do stay and play - but we call it 'Be a child for the day' albeit its only one session. We choose 3 dates per term (6 times a yr) and advertise them in the termly newsletter then pop up a sign up sheet for the parents / grandparent / childminder to sign up on a first come first serve basis. Its always popular and we get positive feedback from parents. We don't do specific activities for parents as we want them to experience it from a child's perspective so they just follow the routine as the child would. When playing we may talk to them about how the child learns through play and they often tell us its quite an eye opener for them on how their child learns. Not much help i know - but definitley worth doing. :1b 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 We do it along the same lines as Wookie, parents can choose a session to suit themselves and then come in and spend sometime with us just following the routine of the day we stipulate only 1 family per session though as when we trialed it with more they just stood around chatting and were more hinderance then help! Those who are really interested can come as many times as they wish and if they are really helpful parents we might even get the washing up done! When my children were at preschool many, many years ago it was part of being in a 'preschool, playgroup' that parents had to attend at least once a term and I do feel that made it more of a 'family, friendly, community setting' than it is now. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinthinguk Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 I would love to introduce this but have some colleagues who are dead against it! they feel that they would be "watched" by the parents! its going to be an up hill battle trying to talk them round to it! I have planned a story reading event for the end of the month, and parents are invited to stay. I am doing a bed time story in the early evening and hope it is going to be popular. I am also holding a parents evening in a weeks time to introduce parents as partners, asking for ideas for themed workshops that they might find useful. If I don't get the go ahead for parents in the setting for sessions, I am going to make sure they have an input in another way. ( small rant over! ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreveryoung Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 We hold them for a week, parents book in max 3 per session. They stay for an hour and it encompasses a theme the last one was 'sensory play' we made little leaflets on sensory play and included dough recipes. Staff played with the parents and children speaking about what sensory play does etc and the importance of it such as early writing skills. We are pack a way so just an hour for us is enough, feedback was fantastic, next one planned is on interactive stories x 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thumperrabbit Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 I would love to introduce this but have some colleagues who are dead against it! they feel that they would be "watched" by the parents! Over the years I have to admit it has got a lot more like this, some parents make you feel like your being judged and at times it can be quite uncomfortable. I don't know why perhaps as we all get older we feel more vunerable or it's because parents pay so much more these days than we used to they feel like they really don't want to be there, they just feel they should?! But then one will turn out to be a lovely parent and it's a really positive outcome :1b you just have to hope you get more of these than you do of the ones above! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredbear Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 (edited) We have a parent/carer rota. Have to say those that do come in say things like" I don't know how you do it with all these children", "thank you for a lovely time" , or "can I put my name down again". I suppose it comes down to how confident you are. Some of our wonderful staff started coming in this way and were hooked. Meant to add that we don't do anything different than what we would do any other time, parent/carers just join in. Edited November 8, 2015 by Fredbear 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twinthinguk Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 Over the years I have to admit it has got a lot more like this, some parents make you feel like your being judged and at times it can be quite uncomfortable. I don't know why perhaps as we all get older we feel more vunerable or it's because parents pay so much more these days than we used to they feel like they really don't want to be there, they just feel they should?! But then one will turn out to be a lovely parent and it's a really positive outcome :1b you just have to hope you get more of these than you do of the ones above! there are some I would want to pick and others refuse! lol we have a few who swear constantly at and in front of the other children! not sure I would want the back lash of that on my head lol most of ours are lovely and I am sure we could get them more involved even if they only stay and play for an hour at the end x the other reason for some of my colleagues being against it is that it disrupts the other children who will become unsettled and want their mummy! we do have quite a few younger ones who this might happen to......it will take some thinking on my behalf before I suggest it again! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mouseketeer Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 we hold a 'stay & play' at the end of a session for 1 hour for anyone who wants to come in, we have one each half term on different days so it's not always the same people having to make the effort to come back and the 'oh I can't do a...' have no excuses, if all staff can make all of them great but if not it doesn't matter, I let parents know a few days before which staff will/won't be available with a gentle reminder that staff have more than one key child ;-p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share Posted November 8, 2015 Thank you all for your replies. I too have staff who feel uneasy with parents staying, I suppose it can feel 'watchful'. I feel it gives parents a sense of what we do and a talking point with their children. I will try one and then maybe look at how I could do themed sessions. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy Posted November 8, 2015 Author Share Posted November 8, 2015 Oops meant to ask...What themed sessions do you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laura Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 We have our first stay and play sessions this week so i'll let you know how they go. We usually have tea parties to raise money for children in need but thought we'd do it differently this year and have stay and play sessions every morning. We sent out a form and asked parents to choose a session to come to. Out of 205 families we have 30 families coming in... we tried to make it as accessible as possible, parents can come in with their child on a different day to their normal booked session if they can't attend due to work. Oh well at least we know we try to get them involved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreveryoung Posted November 8, 2015 Share Posted November 8, 2015 For us our plan includes, sensory, natural and free, interactive story, song bag/time that's for this academic year. I found if staff knew they had set activities to talk about and know the why do we do information then they felt more impowered to talk to parents as otherwise they felt a bit like 'am I teaching them to suck eggs' kinda situation (which yes I know they are not) but for staff who require more confidence in delivering this type of aspect to parents it gave them support. I did leaflets for each activity detailing a list of the 'what will my child learn' so this showed parents how in depth a child's learning is but also was a prompt sheet for the more nervous staff. It's not easy for them delivering stay and play so I looked at what they felt more threatened doing and put in place support tools for this, also we started small no point in jumping in too deep and sinking best to paddle first and learn to swim! The positive feedback gave them empowerment to make the next one better and off they went...... x good luck x 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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