Try a childrens centre near you!!!

This morning I took my one year old little girl, Florence to a childrens centre near to me. I have been a few times now and as a mother with not a great deal of disposable income I have found this centre invaluable to me. There is always something on everyday, some groups involve the children such as messy play, soft play, stay and play drop-ins, singing and stories and some are completely for the parents getting them doing courses (reading, writing and first aid) while your children are in the creche. The centre also offers an array of advice and groups for pregnant mums, young mums, single mums and breast feeding mums along with helping parents getting back into work. EVERYTHING IS FREE!! The groups are run by really friendly staff and long sessions will always provide a healthy snack of fruit and veg with crackers or bread sticks and a choice of water or milk.

The centre I attend is Butterflys children centre atWinhills Primary School in Eynesbury, but I have just recently attended The Eatons at Bushmead Primary School in Eaton Socon. Both have amazed me with the level of cleanliness, care and dedication the staff put into ensuring children and parents have support, safety and most importantly fun!! There are centres up and down the country which all incorporate the same type of set up in a bid to give children and parents a sfae environment to meet other people and encourage interaction with other children. Ask your GP, midwife or health visitior for your local childrens centre or look on the internet in a search engine.

My children tend to get easily bored at home with the same toys and same surroundings and this can lead to arguements and fights. So I have found it so useful to have a centre within walking distance of me that I can take them to, free of charge, and where they can run off energy, play with an array of different toys, do all sorts of fantastic paintings, glueing and mixing, meet other children and where us parents can relax a bit!!

I like to think that I am an open minded mum and will allow my children to make a mess to a certain degree, but at the centres its fantastic because certain groups such as mucky pups allows your child to mix together rice, oil, baked beans, peas, custard and flour in a supervised environment dedicated to encouraging our children to experiement with different textures and foods and all in a controlled place where your home is not going to get clogged up with flour paste and sticky with sugar!! Other messy play involves shaving foam, sand, water and lots of gluing, sticking and painting, all the things that us parents would much prefer somewhere other than in our homes!! I think that it is necessary to allow our children some freedom when it comes to experimenting, I am a firm believer that it will enable them to make small decisions about themselves from a younger age.

So the group lasted 2 hours, half way through our children were rounded up for a snack and drink, all provided free. The choices were orange segments, tomatoes, cucumber, banana, grapes and bread sticks and the drink choices were water and milk. I overheard that a squash juice based drink is no longer allowed to be provided in the centres due to a new oral health study, which shows how dedicated they are to following national guidelines and encouraging children to make healthier choices. Previously each child was offered a biscuit as a snack but we can now see a huge change towards healthier options and a start towards making our children see healthier foods as part of life instead of a chore to eat in place of junk food full in sugar and fat. Each week the centre has a fruit or vegetable of the week, last week it was grapes and this week it is tomatoes. They have a great big picture up in the kitchen area (there is always a kitchen area in these centres) of the fruit/veg of the week detailing for parents their health benefits. The kitchen area is always available to the parents for snacks and drinks, all of a healthy nature and all completely free.

I know that our schools do come under alot of controversy surrounding meals and I believe that for the older children eating school meals this is still a major problem, but as a parent of younger children, it is our duty to ensure that they get the best nutrition from the beginning of their life and grasp an understanding of it being good for you. Our children centres are doing a fantastic job of promoting healthy eating, but also giving a service to parents and children that goes beyond helpful and should definately get more recognition for their endless hard work and committment to our children.