General Chat

If an opportunity / business came about in the area you live in (for some might already exist) for you to be able to take your child to be creative through regular sessions of messy play, ie: paints, crafts ect would you take them? These would be sessions for toddlers, pre-school children to attend regular, paying say per session around £4.(payable each term). The reason I ask if that my friend and I are in the process of setting this up in our local area for children. Any comments would be appreciated. catherine

I think its a wonderful idea. Many parents with young children who work do not have the time to do messy play....... I know I was one of them. when I dropped my career I realised just how much fun they had through this and how much they learned ( tidying up afterwards was one thing they learned LOL ). Also once they get to school depending on the school of course there isn't much time for so called creativity and if there is its very structured to a degree......... not every school but a few. Good luck

Hi Catherine What type of area do you live in? Will parents be able to go to just one or two sessions a week or will it be all week??? One or two sessions a week are not bad but if you have to do five that's £20 pw which to some is a lot of money especially if they have more than one child. It sounds a great idea though, good luck with it. Juliexx

sorry im not a mummy but a big sister to a 4 year old and 2yr old twins, i know that my s.mum would LOVE something like that for them xx

How long would these sessions last??

Hi Julie Cat I live in an area where there is nothing specific like this for children, the sessions hopefully will be 2 for toddlers (say a Thurs and Frid and 2 for pre-school. Lasting around an hour. Obviously the children would attend 1 session every week, therefore giving others a chance on the other days, due to a limited amount of places. Thanks for your responses. catherine

Catherine that sounds great, once a week will give the kids a good time and not be too expensive. Good luck :-)

nudge need as many opinions as I can get. thanks

Great idea I'm not at all creative but my daughter would have loved something like that. She is also very musical, which is something else I'm rubbish at - she would have loved the opportunity to dance and bash a few instruments.

nudge

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!

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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