General Chat

Thanks Deanna and everyone else for your advice and kind words in our venture. I'm so excited that I have finally found something I want to do that I love. I have spent the last 6 years doing this voluntary for my Rainbows and It's time to put my skills to good use and make some money too. I will still do my rainbows as I love it. catherine

Mine are all grown Catherine, but they all loved the painting. With daddies old shirts on! LOL I think you will probably do very well. Good luck. Deanna X

£4 sounds a lot especially to us on low incomes. And as for paying for a term I wouldn't pay upfront. None of the Nurseries I have sent my children to have had that its weekly and the play places they go to its when you go. My ones had memberships and then got a reduced rate each time we went and some of them also do the first monday of each month is free if you are a member. As a guide for you I pay £2 for tiddler for one and half hours of play and activities with drink and biscuit and if I want a tea/coffee I pay 50p.

I think it's an excellent idea Catherine. Dianne xx

Hi Helen The reason we thought fees upfront is in a way to keep your child's place in the 'club' as it were. Fees would be requested upfront, along with the joining fee. That's why the first session would be free, to see if they liked it. My daughter does gymnastics and all fees are charged like this, if she dosen't go then she looses out and so do I cos I have paid upfront. Maybe for a couple of times we could do it as a pay now thing. I have worked in nurseries before, and this was one area where (maybe the only one I worked in) the staff and managers didn't encourage messy play, we even had a woman from surestart come in with huge trays of paint with cling film over for the children to put their hands in.You can guess this eventually went everywhere and no-one apart from me and the kids were impressed. Such as shame,cos it wasn't organised properly, ie: kids wearing old clothes etc.

Hi Catherine, I work in a children's nursery and would offer the comment that if you charge termly you could spend half the term chasing some of the fees from some parents. Better to charge as and when if it's only for an hour or so a session.

sounds liek a fab idea. don't have kids myself but have a lot of friends who do who would gladly welcome something like this in their local area Nichola x

Oh Thanks joanne. Yeah will think about that one Robyne. I'm going to print all your comments off and show my friend later. cheers.x ;)

If you were near me I'd book my son in now :) joanne

How about having just one session a week for a mixture of the groups and perhaps just seperate them off?

Yeah good point robyne, didn't think of that one witha toddler and pre-schooler. Tht's why I posted this to get everyone's ideas. You see you have just given me something else to think about. lol. x

Thanks Joanne Yeah we have thought about children's party's etc, that's for the future, need to walk before we can run as it were. Parents would stay with their child, and there would be facilities for them to have a brew and talk to other mums. It is mainly for the younger end and would fit in around school hours. In the future we hope to do classes for older children and holiday classes. catherine

The only thing i would say, is that if the parents need to be there what if they have a toddler and preschooler? One wont be able to play while the other one is. Obviously this is only if the parents have to stay with the children. Sounds like a really good thing though, the kids will love it.

Hi I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old. Since my school takes children into their nursery the term after they are 3 I wouldn't be as interested for my oldest son during the daytime, but would be for my 2 year old as he doesn't have anything structured to do while my older one is at nursery. Would parents be staying with their children or would they be dropping them off? Hours would have to be coordinated with local schools hours. Also, if it was for 1 hour the location would be important. If it was near shops/coffee shops I'd be likely just to sit in a coffee shop with a magazine and a drink rather than go home. Maybe you could have a lounge area for parents with coffee/tea facilities (which you could also make money from) and cakes etc where they could sit and relax while children are being busy. I know this would interest me! Also, have you thought about doing children's parties after school? I know I'd be interested in that also. All we have here for parties are the big indoor play areas/ball pools. A chance for all the children to do something creative and take something home would be very appealing. I'm sure this would be very popular. Hope this has been useful! joanne

Depends on how long the sessions are, ...I would say 2.50 to £3.50. if its a full afternoon/morning then £4 would seem fair. Then you would have to decide on will it be open holiday times, if not, will the child need to pay a retainer, would you accept vouchers...list goes on. I dont think you have to be qualified to look after children with parental supervision as my friend runs a messy play group but thats because the parents attend and supervise their own child.. However if people are leaving their children, then I think qualifications come into it, also insurance, a snacktime and a first aider.

Yeah andrea see your point, we were going to do a reduced rate for siblings anyway, the first session would be free and membership would cost around £12 pa, when you join you would get a pack, shirt with our logo on, craft activities ect, crayons that sort of thing. Not decided on prices really as at the early stage.

I think it sounds like a brilliant idea,but I think 4 pounds a time is a bit too expensive,Kids and parents like to go to their favourite 'play/activity group' every week and not many people could afford that each week.Plus what if they have twins? How about if you charged a one off membership fee of about 15 pounds per child,per year (reduced for families with more than one child) and reduced the price of the sessions,then you would get a bigger sum up front to help buy equiptment and paints etc.You could also charge the higher price for non members who don't come regularly

cool, all sounds fab to me. best of luck!

Hi Paul My friend and I both work with children anyway, vetted CB check all done, insurance isn't a prob as there are specialist companies that offer this for schools, out of school clubs etc. We are in the process of looking at premises and arranging to meet up with the local goverment agencies that can offer us help. My husband is in advertising and has done our logo and will sort out advertising,and his mate does web design. So hopefull we will have everything covered. Equipment there are loads of places that you can get your supplies from. We both have the experience of this tyoe of thing but always done it on a voluntary basis. catherine

fantastic idea. i'd happily pay that. not to put a downer on it but have you checked the insurance costs? and materials, location etc? you also have to do the vetting process to work with kids now which takes ages. best of luck!