Archive for the ‘Consultation’ Category

Have you ever made something for your children to play with? Did your parents or grandparents have a great idea for a plaything or game that didn’t cost the earth?

We would like to hear about it.

Toys can be expensive and many families just can’t afford to keep buying new ones, that’s why the Toy Library was set up 30 years ago. However there are also many ways to make playthings, play activities and games for next to nothing. Children have been playing for a very long time before there were mass produced toys.

Do you have an example of something you’ve made or used for children to play with using everyday items or your local environment? Whether you’re a child, parent or grandparent and if its something from last week or 50 years ago, we would like to hear about it.

Some common ideas are making sock puppets, threading pasta necklaces, cars made of big cardboard boxes, hopscotch, walking along without stepping on cracks in the pavement……. We know there are thousands of others and want as many as possible.

If you have an example to share with us, please tell us in the ‘Leave a reply’ box below or send your ideas and pictures to ideas@toy-library.co.uk

“Children’s play is essential but needn’t cost money. We’ve launched the hunt for fun, inexpensive home-made ideas to help families and to remind everyone that play doesn’t have to mean splashing out financially or keeping up with the latest fad or gadget – it’s about spending time with your children.”

What do you think?

Each year it gets more difficult to raise enough money for us to run our Toy Library Play and Lend Sessions. These are the sessions for families with pre-school children that run during school terms in community centres and church halls in and around Bulwell. Last year well over 200 families used these sessions.

For the 30 years that we have been running them they have been completely free, the only cost being a voluntary payment of 15p to borrow a toy.

To keep the Toy Library sessions running in the future we have no choice but to think seriously about starting to make a small charge.

The Management Committee and staff have thought long and hard about this and don’t want to do anything without finding out what our members think. Many of you will know that we recently asked people to fill in a questionnaire about charging at the sessions.

The results of the questionnaire were almost all in favour of us making a small charge to come to each session. Most people suggested that a fair amount to charge was £1 per session per family or childminder.

This will be discussed at the next meeting of our Management Committee, please let us know what you think if you haven’t already.

Ghastly ghouls, witches, spiders, ghosts, goblins, graveyards……. these and many other traditional Halloween themes and characters are often used in children’s play, whether its  making masks or pumpkin faces, dressing up, acting out, or just pretending to be scary or scared.

Are they a good thing or a bad thing? Have your say.

For -  Children love the thrill of scary games and activities. Also research has shown that they can build up their ability to deal with fear and difficult emotions in the future by including such things in their play.

Against -  Some religious groups believe that children should not be encouraged to do Halloween activities because they involve things that they consider to be wrong. Also some people believe that children may be upset by activities that are scary.

Click on comments below to tell us what you think.