Kirsten´s last blog post…Picture, Picture, Pictures!!

Here is a post I wrote about things I have learned over the years, through participating in cooperative playgroups and summer camps:
http://mominisrael.blogspot.com/2007/07/tips-for-planning-cooperative-playgroup.html

mother in israel´s last blog post…Link for list of injured soldiers and civilians who need prayers

In our group, a few would invite the majority, but leave a few out. This has caused a diversion in the group as a whole.

There are times that people will want to go to something with one or two people and that is fine, but if you invite 5 people over and there are 7 in the group…that’s just not cool in my book. So I know it’s sad to have to use it as rule, but if you say ‘no excluding’ in the beginning – everyone will be up front. You never know who an excluder will be if you don’t know them.

Having a yahoo! group or meetup group can solve this. Yahoo! you just e-mail the group. You don’t have to remember everyone’s e-mail, but just one to e-mail the group. This way people can’t ‘accidentally’ forget to invite someone.

Good luck!

For my children, a playdate usually inolved me setting up a date and time with a like-minded friend who happened to have children. With little ones (4 and under) and large playgroups, I always found the need to monitor my children or other children who, well, were just acting their age. In time, I learned that the smaller, more controlled, playdates worked for me and my bambinos. We tend to be big on playing in the neighborhood or simply heading to the playground for a change of pace.

I decided to let preschool be the major introduction into structured group play for my children and it worked out just fine. It’s different strokes for different folks. I know plenty of moms who LOVED and cherished their organized playgroups.

Kimberly´s last blog post…Fancy Food Show, San Francisco

1. Keep it small. Generally I prefer even number of kids between 4 and 6.
2. I usually do structured playgroup that starts off with a 20min unstructured play. Every child brings a toy and host may provide more if possible. This encourages the concept of sharing and exchanging toys and teaches kids to learn negotiating. A little structure which introduces activities like crafts, music and movement and storytelling usually are welcomed by kids and mums alike.
3. Rules are set and mentioned to kids by their own caregivers. Rules like no hitting, play nicely, take turns etc.. and parents know they must supervise their own children and ensure proper hygiene, not to bring sick kids to playgroups etc.

Domesticgoddess´s last blog post…Bento #31 – Doggie Bento

Have people take turns hosting playgroup. I’m in a playgroup and only 2 of us have people over – each of us once a week. There are about 9 people in the playgroup. I think for those who can and have a house well enough to host a playgroup, should host it.

Set a time limit to your playgroup. Such as come anytime between 9-12, or 10-12 or 1-3. Otherwise people will stay all day…and then when you set a time limit for one reason or another, they get annoyed.

Tell people to bring their own food, snacks and drinks…if your children need more to drink, you will gladly make a pitcher of something to drink. I would even tell them to bring their own sippy cups if their children are drinking out of them. Otherwise you may go to get a sippy cup for your little one (because many people are using your sippy cups) and find there are no clean ones for you to use. You don’t want to be out worse than when you started…meaning having lots of dirty dishes. It’s not fair to the host. Have paper plates if someone needs one.

Instruct in the invite e-mail that you would like everyone to help clean up the tornado, I mean toys before they leave. Another thing you shouldn’t really have to say, but not everyone will help pick up if you don’t say anything.

There was a rota for people to volunteer to set up, put away or make tea and coffee. The fee was about £2.00 a session to cover costs. There were quite a few parents (I’d guess around 30) and it was split into 2 areas babies and toddlers.