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Nappies, sleepless nights, feeds round the clock…it’s hard becoming a parent for the first time, especially if you’re new to it, or you don’t have family and friends around to support you.

To help, we’re offering new parents free advice at this year’s Nottingham Baby Fayre this Sunday from 10am to 4pm at the Bulwell Academy on Squires Avenue in Bulwell.

You’ll also be able to find out more about our Family Link service, which offers parents and carers free, one-to-one advice in their own homes, plus free baby play sessions so that you can get out and about and meet other new mums and dads in the area.

Look out for our banner at the show and come and meet Lorraine!

We’ve been supporting local families for over 30 years, so we’re keen to pass on our knowledge and experience to new and prospective parents.

As well as running free play sessions for babies, we also run free play sessions for children up to the age of 14, including indoor and outdoor play activities.

Plus of course, you’re welcome to borrow toys and games from the toy library for a very small charge. There are over 3,000 to choose from, including toys and games specifically designed for children with physical or learning disabilities.

The Nottingham Baby Fayre is open to adults and children of all ages and will include free talks and demos, a bouncy castle, face-painting, baby soft-play area, gifts, taster activity sessions, a pamper area for tired parents complete with crèche and free support and advice from organisations.

The event is also raising money for the Nottingham Neonatal Service.

To find out more about the fayre visit www.nottinghambabyfayre.co.uk

To find out more about our Family Link project please call Lorraine or Steve on 0115 975 3898.

We’ve teamed up with the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery in the city centre to help families in Bulwell make the most of their local woods at Bulwell Hall Park – as part of our Play on the Wildside project.

Artists Sian Watson and Gillian Brent will work with us and families living in Bulwell to create free resources, designed to help other families explore and enjoy playing in the woods.

Resources will include a storybook based on families experiences of playing in the woods, together with hands-on play activities for children of different ages and creative maps designed by children to give other young people a ‘child’s eye view’ of the woods.

For example, the maps will include children’s favourite trees, great spots for hide and seek and lots of ideas for making up your own stories.

When we were researching our Play on the Wildside project, we found that many local families weren’t using the woods in Bulwell Hall Park, as they didn’t know the woods were there, or weren’t sure what to do there.

To help, we run regular sessions in the woods for children aged from 0 to 14, plus special family sessions every second Saturday of the month – which are open to the whole family including friends and grandparents.

Sessions give children and families the chance to enjoy adventurous outdoor play activities such as hide and seek and laying and following trails in the woods; whilst finding out more about nature and the environment and learning ‘bushcraft’ style skills like making campfires, building dens and cooking outdoors.

Hopefully the resources we’re creating with Nottingham Contemporary will help children and families even more. They’ll be available to borrow free of charge from the toy library from October onwards but we’ll keep you posted!

View details of Play on the Wildside sessions

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We’re holding a Play on the Wildside event for families on Saturday 11^th June from 11am to 3pm at Bulwell Hall Park – where you’ll be able to enjoy ‘arts & crafts meets bushcraft’!

Play on the Wildside

The event is designed for all the family from little ones to grandparents so why not come down and try your hand at nature-based arts and crafts including making pictures and frames from natural materials, flower printing and even making string from stinging nettles!

We launched our Play on the Wildside project in April and it’s proved very popular.

Via the project we offer outdoor play sessions for children aged from 0 to 14 years, plus monthly sessions (second Saturday of every month) for families.

Several families came along to our first family session in May, including a park ranger all the way from Sheffield!

The aim of the project is to give children and families a fun, exciting, free way to enjoy the great outdoors and discover nature in the city.

We’ve been given funding to run the project until 2013, by the Big Lottery Fund, through Natural England’s Access to Nature programme.

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

Hope to see you there!

Just a reminder that we’ve no Play & Lend sessions on this week, as it’s half term.

We are running two Play on the Wildside sessions though – for children aged from 5 to 13 years.

There’s a session on Wednesday from 11am to 3pm at Bulwell Hall Park and also one on Friday, same time, same place.

We’re also organising a trip for children who attend our Crabtree after-school sessions, but unfortunately, all the places on the trip are now taken.

Sessions will be back to normal next week – to find out more check out the Services section of the website.

Alternatively, please feel free to call us on 0115 975 3898.

As you may have read in yesterday’s Nottingham Evening Post, we’ve been given some money by local Councillors to keep our after-school club for girls running for at least another year.

The girls’ club is for girls aged from 9 to 13 and it runs on Friday afternoons during school term time from 3.30pm to 5.30pm at the Children’s Centre, Steadfold Close, Crabtree Farm Estate, Bulwell.

If you’d like to find out more about the club feel free to give us a ring on 0115 975 3898.

Now is your chance to help the toy library provide fantastic FREE activities for families and children aged from 0 to 14 years – simply by buying the Nottingham Evening Post!

The Post is giving away £35,000 to good causes in Nottingham via its Cash for your Community campaign – including us!

The money will be divided between 300 groups and the amount we receive depends on how many coupons we can collect.

The more coupons we collect, the more money we get!

Please help by collecting the Cash for your Community coupons in the Post – which will be printed everyday until Friday 17th June (from 25th May).

This money really will make a difference to us and will be spent on providing free play activities for children of all ages – in Bulwell and surrounding areas.

You can hand any coupons you collect to toy library staff or volunteers at any of our sessions – or you can drop them in or post them to us at Chris Firth Cottages, Norwich Gardens, Bulwell, Nottingham, NG6 8GG.

Alternatively, you can send coupons direct to the Evening Post.

Thanks again for all your help – it’s much appreciated!

There’s a story in today’s Nottingham Evening Post about us – and it’s good news folks!

A charitable trust who wishes to remain anonymous has given us £25,000 to continue our Language Through Toys and Play project for another year.

As you can imagine, with funding so hard to find at the moment, we’re over the moon at the news.

The Language Through Toys and Play project has been running for around 11 years so it would’ve been terrible to see it close due to lack of funding.

The project uses play to encourage speech and language development in children, especially children with mild speech and language difficulties and delays.

Children are often referred to us by their GP or Health Visitor but parents are welcome to get in touch with us directly – if you have any concerns about your child’s speech.

Using play to encourage your child’s development is something you can do from birth so feel free to contact us if you’d like any advice or support.

We provide a wide range of services for families including a toy library and play sessions for children aged from 0 to 14.

Evening Post Article

Who’d have thought a leafy corner of a park in Bulwell would make the national news – for all the right reasons too!

Our Play on the Wildside project, which offers free nature-based outdoor play sessions for children aged 0 to 14 – and families – is featured in today’s Daily Mirror on page 46.

The project is included in a regular Mirror feature called ‘Welcome to the Weekend’ a guide to help families make the most of their weekends.

It’s great to get this kind of recognition for the work we’re doing – so thank you to the Mirror for your interest.

If you want to Play on the Wildside we’ve got a session for families on tomorrow 14th May from 11am to 3pm at Bulwell Hall Park which is suitable for children and adults of all ages!

We also run regular Play on the Wildside sessions for little ones aged under 5 on Wednesdays and sessions for older children aged up to 14 after school, during the holidays and at weekends.

If you’d like to find out more feel free to give us a call on 0115 975 3898.

We’re launching free nature-inspired outdoor play sessions for families this Saturday – 14th May – which will be held every second Saturday of the month at Bulwell Hall Park on Sandhurst Road in Bulwell from 11am to 3pm.

We’re launching the sessions to give families a free, fun way to get together and enjoy the great outdoors – on their doorstep!

Play on the Wildside

For example, the sessions will include family challenges, nature trails, trips to other natural venues around Nottingham and the chance to have a go at making things like bird boxes – which you can take home. Plus lots, lots more!

So why not come down to Bulwell Hall Park this Saturday from 11am and join in the fun? You can bring the whole family including little ones and grandparents – whoever you’d like to bring along.

Best of all it’s free and hopefully the sun will be shining!

The family sessions are part of our Play on the Wildside Project – which aims to give children aged from 0 to 14 a safe yet fun way to play outdoors and enjoy the natural world. As part of Play on the Wildside, we run sessions for 5 to 14 year olds after school, on Saturdays and during the holidays. Plus we run outdoor Play & Lend Woodland Sessions for children aged under 5 on Wednesdays from 1pm to 2.30pm.

If you’d like to know more, please feel free to give us a call on 0115 975 3898.

Over 500 people came to our Easter event on Pulley Park yesterday! It was a fantastic day, with family groups sitting on the grass; children playing; making all sorts of things at the craft stalls; looking for Easter eggs in the woods; painting each other’s faces; playing games to identify trees; collecting bugs with the Park Ranger…

And we’re doing it all again next week, Wednesday April 27th from 11am to 3pm at Bulwell Hall Park on Sandhurst Road in Bulwell.

Everyone’s welcome and the event is completely free – hope to see you there!