Workshops

At Bouncy Bear we work closely with our families. One of the ways we do this is to offer free evening or weekend workshops.  These workshops are usually developed by us at the request of a family or families. Sometimes we also offer workshops linked to health and safety of children at home, healthy eating workshops or workshops recommended for families by research papers, local Government or Health Visitors. We love workshops, they give us another chance to talk to families about their children’s learning and development and they give our families the opportunity to pick up any hints or tips which they may not already be aware of.

I have listed some of workshops that we have held below:

Transitions Workshop – This workshop really helps to put parents minds at ease when their children are about to leave to go to school. We also cover different transitions that children may be going through in the setting or at home. This workshop was developed to help alleviate the concerns of parents who had children laving Bouncy Bear to go to school.

Physical Development – A workshop linked to football and the World Cup which we held on a weekend as more Dads would be able to attend help children develop their physical skills of kicking the ball, running and stopping.

Creative Workshop – Families were struggling with ideas for creative activities to do with their children at home so we held several Creative workshops which they could come and explore with their children.

Behaviour Workshop – Some parents had raised concerns about managing their child’s behaviour at home and asked us to run a workshop. We advised on successful strategies we use in the setting, answered “What if” questions and gave helpful websites and resources for them to take away. The parents said it had really helped and their children’s behaviour had improved as a result of them using the strategies.

Parent Involvement

In addition to workshops we also work closely with parents in many different ways.

We invite parents in to Bouncy Bear to share their children’s learning or share their own special skills or talents. This could be open mornings, shared stories or shared activities linked to learning.

We have open events such as our Art Gallery where families are invited in to celebrate their children’s creations and efforts.

We also hold fun events for the whole family, such as our annual Halloween and Christmas Parties where families are invited to join us for games and activities with their children.

We welcome suggestions of other ways you feel we could involve our parents more in their child’s education and Bouncy Bear.

Within the setting, we offer a variety of workshops throughout the year for parents and their children. These workshops give parents new ideas to promote home learning and also to give them the opportunity to share experiences and ideas with other families from Bouncy Bear.

Workshops are also a lovely way for parents and their children to share experiences together within their child’s nursery environment. Within the workshops, we also provide parents with useful websites to access more resources, ideas of resources that they can create for free or at a minimum cost using natural everyday objects and how these can all be implemented within their child’s learning development and everyday play. This also gives parents the opportunity to raise any concerns that they may have or any general queries or advice that they need on this particular subject with the nursery carers.

During the workshops we set out a variety of activities for the children to take part in alongside their parents linked to the workshop theme. This gives parents the opportunity to see new ways of playing with their child and supporting their learning. This also gives children the opportunity to show their parents what they like and dislike. The parents and children take home new ideas of ways to play and learn together at home.

Some of the workshops that we have offered to families are; Equality and Diversity, Physical Development, Behaviour Management, Mathematical Development, Valentine’s Day, International Children’s Day, Transitions, Phonics and many more! We also welcome parent’s suggestions for workshops, which they feel may help them, so that we are able to support not only the children’s needs, but also the needs of the parents.