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

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!

They’ll be free craft activities for children and parents/carers and you’ll also get the chance to look round Playworks’ Scrapstore.

The Scrapstore houses an amazing range of arts and crafts materials which you can buy for a fraction of the cost of similar materials sold in the shops.

Plus, Playworks can give you loads of hints and tips on how to do arts and crafts with your children at home.

The event will also include free refreshments.

To find out more please call Playworks on 0115 958 9199. Playworks is on Alfred Street North, off Mansfield Road, not far from the Victoria Centre. The postcode is NG3 1AE.

]]> http://www.toy-library.co.uk/playworks-event-for-families-october-1st/feed/ 0 http://www.toy-library.co.uk/heres-our-annual-report/ http://www.toy-library.co.uk/heres-our-annual-report/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:50:43 +0000 BCTL http://www.toy-library.co.uk/?p=757 Don’t worry if you can’t make it along to our Annual General Meeting today, you can find out what the toy library’s been doing over the last year in our Annual Report.

It includes a report from our Chair, Judy Berry, news of our new projects including our nature-based play project ‘Play on the Wildside’ and a review of the services we provide for families.

Don’t worry, if you haven’t got time to read the whole thing, the Annual Report is full of photographs that really sum up the importance of play in children’s lives, for families and for the community as a whole.

Bulwell Community Toy Library Annual Report

To find out more please call us on 0115 975 3898.

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

You can find out more on the Nottingham Contemporary website

We’re currently working with artists from the Nottingham Contemporary to create free resources for families – designed to help you explore, play and make the most of the woods at Bulwell Hall Park.

We’ll let you know when the resources are ready!

Many thanks for your help and please feel free to get in touch if you’d like to find out more.

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The mobile creche service was launched in September 2010 to give organisations from the community and public sectors an affordable and flexible way of providing childcare.

A lot of colleges and training providers have been using the creche and are really pleased with it. The word is now spreading and more organisations have already started to book the service for the coming academic year, which is why we’re looking for new staff over the summer.

So if you’re an experienced childcare worker with an NVQ Level 2 or 3 in Child Care why not give us a call on 0115 975 3898 to find out more or download more details here.