Kids Play Groups
Background
In early days, when the size of the family was relatively bigger, children were naturally getting the company of their siblings to play with. Now, as the size of the family is reducing, it is getting difficult for a child to find a play mate to play with at home. If you have only one child and if she demanding, you will find that she needs more and more of your time. If you are a busy working parents and you are not able to spend enough time with your child, she will spend most of the time watching TV. Even in the case , if one spouse is home maker, some times kids are becoming so demanding that they can keep her mom busy for the whole of the day the mom finds difficult to carry out any other activity of her own interest.
Considering all these, I proposed in earlier communities where I lived a self-help model where parents of children of the same age group can help forming play groups for their kids and host such play groups at their home in a collaborative way so that each in the group is benefited.
I am making this web-site to propagate the idea of “Kids Play Group”. You can put your comments at the end.
What are the Kids Play Groups?
There will be groups of two to four kids of the same age group who will meet few days a week to play and have good time together. Such play groups will be hosted by each of the parents in the group in rotation. This means if there are four parents in a group ,then each of them will take a turn to become host.
The group of kids will meet two-three days a week for one to two hours at the host’ home . Host parents will take the responsibility of engaging the kids for any games, rhymes or any other play activities. Even host can let the kids play together while they keep a watch. This means the parents who join this group must be willing to take care of small group of kids whenever their turns come. If the host parent has nanny or somebody to take care of kids and if she feels the person will be capable of hosting such groups, then also it would be fine. It will be preferable that the other parents in the group drop their kids at the host parents’ house and then go back. This will make sure that host parents house is not crowded and kids have enough room to play. However, if the host parents are willing, the guest parents can stay back and take care of their kids while they play together.
How to form Kids Play Group?
Kids group may be formed based on age group and/or timing preferences. It must be for the kids living in the same neighborhood or in same apartment community.
An example is like this
| Group | Age Group |
|---|---|
| Babies | 0 - 1 Year |
| Walking Toddlers | 1 - 3 Years |
| Pre Schoolers | 4 - 5 Years |
| Lower School | 5 - 9 Years |
Each group will have a leader who will take care of scheduling and accounting. The group together can decide when to meet and how often to meet. This flexibility will make this more convenient to the hosts.
Hosting parents will have the liberty to choose when they want to host and announce thru email to the others in group.
Host parent engage the group of children in various activities like playing together, reading, coloring , art and craft, helping with homework, music, dancing or any thing which children like. It may be in door or outdoor based on weather condition.
Accounting
Though it is free group and you do not have to pay any thing but you put your time when its your turn to host. Committing in advance to host a group might be a difficult but following accounting method gives you flexibility to host whenever you have time and enjoy the facility when you need it:
· You get credit of 1 point for each child you host for each hour.
· Your account get debited by 1 point when you utilize the play group hosted by other in the group for each hour.
This accounting method handles the case even when all the members of the group do not join on all the days or they come for different amount of time.
For example, A,B,C,D starts a group on Sep 01st.
Date
Host
Play Group
A
B
C
D
9/1
A
A,B,C,D
3
-1
-1
-1
9/3
B
A,B,D
3-1=2
-1+2=1
-1
-1-1=-2
9/5
C
A,C,D
2-1=1
1
-1+2=1
-2-1=-3
9/10
D
A,B,C,D
1-1=0
1-1=0
1-1=0
3-3=0
Benefits
Thought it is not difficult for kids to make friends in a big community like this, this model will organize it so that even those kids who are not able to make friends will be able to do it easily.
Also, a family which is new to the community can easily find friends for their kids.
Kids will get time to play with other kids under guidance of the parents rather than getting glued to the TV.
The parents who love to spend time with their kids may find it better to have some more kids at their home to play with their kid.
The parents who are busy may be able to use their time more efficiently when they host the group and when other family hosts such group, they get time to attend to other chores.
As this is collaborative model, there is no fees or any payments involved.
Interested?
Interested and excited about the idea? Feel free to send link of this blog to others in your community and encourage them to make such Kids Play Group for their community.
I will be posting more information on this site which will help how to organise such group.
Some references
