Archive for the ‘Activities’ Category

We’re launching a brand new project to give families a fun way of enjoying stories together!

The idea has been inspired by the BBC’s classic ‘Listen with Mother’ radio show which featured stories for little ones read aloud by presenters.

We’re updating the idea for 2012 by developing a website where you’ll be able to listen to stories as a family, with children of all ages.

At the moment, we’re looking for authors who would be happy for us to read their stories aloud as we need the writer’s permission to feature books online.

In the future we’re hoping to expand the project so that local children can get involved in story-writing for example.

We’ll keep you posted!

Reading aloud to children from a young age has loads of great benefits for them and research shows that children who are read to go on to do better at school and in later life.

Click here to read the full story

Our new play sessions at the Bulwell Riverside Centre on Main Street/Coventry Road are proving really popular.

The sessions include free after-school activities for older children and daytime play sessions for babies and under 5′s which cost just £1 per family.

Click here for a full list of play sessions at the Riverside or to find out more.

We also run play sessions for children of all ages at other venues in Bulwell including outdoor play sessions at Bulwell Hall Park woods.

For a full list of play sessions for children aged 0 to 5 please click here

For a full list of play sessions for children aged 5 to 13 please click here

As you may know, we’re now running regular play sessions at the new Bulwell Riverside centre on Main Street/Coventry Road in Bulwell.

The new sessions include:

Play & Lend session for children aged 0 to 5 years
Every Thursday from 9.30am to 11am
Costs: £1 per family

Join in with fun play activities specially designed for little ones, run by our experienced playworkers and volunteers, whilst you enjoy a coffee and a chat! Plus, you can borrow toys and games to take home in-between sessions for just a few pence.

Baby Play session for babies aged from 0 to 14 months 
Every Tuesday from 1pm to 2.30pm
Costs: £1 per family

Join in with fun play activities designed exclusively for babies whilst meeting other parents and carers.

After school session for 9 to 13 year olds
Every Monday from 3.30pm to 5.30pm
FREE

A free session for 9 to 13 year olds designed to give children a fun, safe place to meet their friends and join in with a whole host of activities including games, sports, arts and crafts.

After school session for 5 to 13 year olds
Every Thursday from 3.30pm to 5.30pm
FREE

A free session for 5 to 13 year olds designed to give children a fun, safe place to meet their friends and join in with a whole host of activities including games, sports, arts and crafts.

For full details of all our other sessions please visit our 0-5 years section or our Over 5′s section.

We held our first ever session at the new Bulwell Riverside on Tuesday 1st November.

It was a special play session for babies and as you can see from the pictures, a lot of fun was had by all!

Nine parents came along to the session and you’re more than welcome to join them next week – we’ll be holding a regular play session for babies aged under 14 months every Tuesday from 1pm to 2.30pm at the Riverside.

It’s never too early to start playing with your baby – as well as helping you to bond with your little one, play will help your baby to develop skills such as speech and language as they grow.

Plus of course, our baby play sessions are a great way to meet other parents and carers with young children.

You’ll also find us at the Riverside on Thursday mornings from 9.30am to 11am – where we’ll be running a Play and Lend session for 0 to 5 year olds. Our Play and Lend sessions include lots of fun activities for little ones run by experienced playworkers and volunteers. Plus, you can borrow toys and games from our toy library in-between sessions for just a few pence a week.

Each session costs just £1 per family.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

We’re running new play sessions from Tuesday 1st November at the Bulwell Riverside – in partnership with Nottingham City Council’s Family Community Team.

The sessions will include after-school play sessions for children aged from 5 to 13 and also daytime play sessions for families with children under 5.

We’ll be running a special baby-play session too, which will use play to help develop children’s language and communication skills from an early age.

The after-school play sessions for 5 to 13 year olds are free and the sessions for under 5′s will cost just £1 per family.

We hope to see you at our first session on the 1st!

You’re welcome to call us on 0115 975 3898 to find out more about the sessions.

Bulwell Riverside is on Main Street and Coventry Road, close to the River Leen and Bulwell Bogs Park.

Read more here…

We’ve got a story in the Nottingham Evening Post (13th Oct) about the work we’ve been doing with local families and the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery.

Families who attend our play sessions have been working with artists from the Contemporary to make games and activities for other families to use – to help them enjoy playing in the woods at Bulwell Hall Park.

Families have also helped to make a special Play and Learn Trail for the Contemporary – which will be launched at the gallery on Saturday 22nd October.

The Trail includes hands-on play activities and interactive maps to help families explore the gallery.

Eventually, the Trail will be handed back to us, so we’ll be able to use it in Bulwell as well.

If you’d like to come along to the Contemporary on the 22nd, please feel free to let us know.

We’ll let you know more details about the launch very soon!

We’ll also let you know how you can get your hands on our wonderful new games and activities!

Read the story in full in the Nottingham Evening Post

Please help us to win £6,000 worth of funding to help keep our Girls’ After School Club running next year by voting for us!

The money is up for grabs via NatWest bank’s CommunityForce initiative and we’re just one of many organisations competing for the funding so we really need your help.

Vote for us online or call 0800 2100 246. Anyone with hearing or speech impairments can contact CommunityForce on Minicom number 0800 0155 545.

Voting closes on 23rd October and you’re allowed to vote 3 times.

As you may know, our girls’ club gives girls aged from 9 to 13 the chance to get involved in activities after school such as arts, crafts, games and discussions about things that they choose.

Many thanks for your support – it’s always appreciated.

Just a reminder that our term-time play sessions for children begin on Monday 12th September with a couple of changes to our usual timetable.

The ‘Play on the Wildside’ nature-inspired outdoor play sessions for little ones aged from 0 to 5 will now take place on Tuesday mornings at Bulwell Hall Park (behind the toy library’s offices) instead of Wednesday afternoons.

The outdoor play sessions replace the family learning sessions, which have now ended.

Click here for a full list of play sessions for children aged 0 to 5

If you have older children, please note that our after-school session at the Crabtree Community Centre on Tuesday is now for children aged from 5 to 8 years only (as we were getting over 70 children at this session!)

Click here for a full list of term-time sessions for older children aged from 5 to 13

Please feel free to give us a call on 0115 975 3898 for more information.

We had a story in Thursday’s Evening Post about our campaign to find funding to keep our girls’ after school club running next year.

You can read the story in full on the Evening Post website.

If you’d like to vote for us to win funding from NatWest bank’s CommunityForce initiative you can vote from 26th September by calling 0800 2100 246  or online via the CommunityForce website.

Many thanks for your support!

Just a reminder to let you know that our regular term-time play sessions start again on the 12th September.

To find out more about all our services including play sessions for children aged from 0 to 14 please visit the Services section of the website or feel free to get in touch.

Many thanks