They have been facilitating fun play workshops just for parents where they can join in with a whole range of play opportunities and get to grips with some basic play theory. The idea is to encourage parents to give their children more time for free play and to spend more quality time with their children without TV’s or mobile phones intervening. It is also a great way for Children’s Centres to get more families to use their facilities and meet more of the local community.

The sessions have been hugely successful with universally positive feedback and a desire for more sessions from the parents that attend. Often the groups of parents have been nervous at first but have soon warmed up and taken part in all of the activities with sometimes hilarious results. By the end of the session several parents have stated that they would not have believed they had the confidence to join in but were really pleased that they had. This increased level of confidence will hopefully have a profound impact on their children.

In addition to play workshops, Children’s Links are also delivering special sessions around increasing risk and challenge for children and positive behaviour management. There has also been a highly successful session exclusively for Dad’s and Granddads where we made fires, built forts and dressed up as killer robots!

It is impossible to gauge the true impact of this project but every parent who has attended has left the sessions committed to improving their children’s play opportunities and spending more quality time with their children. It was gratifying to find out that after attending the workshops a local dad and granddad had been to the park with their children the very next day and launched bottle rockets with their children and grandchildren. The comments from the evaluation sheets speak for themselves about the value of this initiative.

“Had a great time and learnt through playing. Also got to be a child again!”

“Great Day, Lots of Fun. Slightly embarrassing in a good way”

“The session was brilliant. I absolutely enjoyed and learnt a lot of ways to improve play.
It would be really nice to have a follow up session.”

“Thank you for an excellent time”

“I have really enjoyed today and have enjoyed the fashion show...”

“It is good to have all the idea about play, fun and everything that is good for kids.”

“The session was brilliant. I absolutely enjoyed and learnt a lot of ways to improve play.  It would be really nice to have a follow up session.”

“V.Fun session. Enjoyed practical with Rockets amazing and will enjoy trying it out at home with son.”

“The sessions are informal and flexible and adapted to suit the needs of the parents. Parents find these less threatening than more formal courses and feedback has been extremely positive...”
Sally Grieff, Children’s Centre Leader

“The best thing about the project for me has been the incredible fun we have had on the sessions. Parents getting the chance to run around, dress up, fall over and climb stuff has been really rewarding and has reminded everyone involved of why children and adults need to play.”
Ben Kingston-Hughes, Workshop Leader - Play development Coordinator Children’s Links.

FOR MORE INFORMATION EMAIL play@childrenslinks.org.uk.