Play @ Home

Play @ home provides a way of strengthening parent & child relationships through fun activities which contribute to all round development.
The use of Play @ home supports the development of skills & helps develop confidence, self respect & self-esteem, all vital for developing a child’s resilience in later life.
It provides a fun way of strengthening parent & child relationships through activities and interaction.                                                         

Play @ home book distribution
Baby books are provided by your Health Visitor.
Toddler Books are posted to families by the Childcare and Early Education Service, usually within 6 weeks of your child's first birthday.
Pre-school Books are handed out via Pre- school providers.
The series of books are also available to borrow from your local library.

Play @ home:  Raising Awareness
Care & Learning Alliance have been involved in promoting the use of Play @ home in Highland over the last 5 years. We have recently completed a promotion project to deliver practical workshops in 22 groups across Highland.  Workshops were delivered to a wide range of groups including Breast Buddies, Grantown new Mum’s group, Action for Children in Lochaber and toddler groups with Dad’s, Polish families and to Gaelic groups. Activities included were: baby massage, messy food play, tunnels and torches, songs and rhymes, making gloop and obstacle courses.
During February and March 2010 a total of 208 adults and 244 children participated in the workshops.

A sample of feedback received from parent’s and carer’s who attended the workshops:
• “Play @ Home books are a treasure trove of activities for various stages of early childhood.”
• “Much is common sense and you may do I of it anyway but when you are stuck for an idea or wonder if you are doing the right thing for your child’s development the books are an excellent reference source.”
• “Thank you for organizing this workshop it has been good fun.”
• “ It was a good idea to translate the activity cards into Polish.
• “Thank you for doing this, I wouldn’t have thought of doing this at home, but will try it now!”
• .“I’d forgotten about my play @ home book, I know where it is though and I will get it out now.”
• “The singing at the end was great, I didn’t realise all those songs were at the back of the Play @ Home book.”
• “I think the Play @ Home books are brilliant for simple ideas and to help you realise what your baby should be doing at certain ages.”
• “The tunnelling with torches and hats was a brilliant idea, my older children would love that too, something they can all do together.”
• “He absolutely loves the gloop, I’m going to have to buy cornflour on the way home, I didn’t realise that was all it was.”

Play @ home news
Gaelic recourses are now available, a toddler play @ home book, and a pre – school leaflet with Gaelic songs & rhymes.

C.D’s have also gone to print.

Polish Play @ home activity cards are being produced, with Polish rhymes included.

For further information please contact the CALA Inverness office.                                  

CALA  had three representatives attending the play@home Training the Trainer (T4T) training in May. This training is a one day delivery and will cover ‘motivational interviewing approaches’ – this has been found to be more effective when trying to encourage people to change their behaviour – which includes raising the issue of playing with their children.
The three trainers will then facilitate this training in a half day workshop for  all CALA members and staff who work with children from birth to 5 years.