Playcentre places available – a great time for all
Four-year-old Leith Finney pulls a cart full of children with a helping hand from Playcentre dad Rex Bowden. Photo: Supplied.
Getting a place on one of Takaka Playcentre's sessions used to be as difficult as getting a ticket to see Mamma Mia.
But since the new kindergarten has opened, the pressure on Playcentre's numbers has really relaxed and for the first time in years, it can now offer places on almost all its sessions.
"I used to have really long waiting lists for all the sessions and I hated having to turn people down all the time," said enrolments officer Vanessa Harwood. "But at last we have places available-on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, as well as Wednesday afternoons.
"It's great to finally be able to say ‘yes' to people rather than just putting them on a waiting list and asking them to be patient."
Playcentre offers comprehensive facilities for children from birth until six. The emphasis is on providing a home-from-home atmosphere with plenty of adult supervision and masses of fun. Every session has 16 different areas of play and the children can do whatever they feel like doing that day-from building zoos in the sandpit to learning to swing from the new climbing frames. It isn't just the children who have a great time.
"I really enjoy being here with the children, playing with them and teaching them things," said Rex Bowden, 25, who brings Aliana, five months, and Xavier, two, to Playcentre once a week. "My fiancée Jenna brings the kids twice a week when I work and I bring them once when she works. That way we get to share working and parenting."
For Barb Trevathan and her daughter Nirvana, 23 months, and baby Fabian, six months, Playcentre was a great way to meet people when they moved to the Bay earlier this year.
"I come really for Nirvana so she can interact with other children, but it is also great for me," she said. "I didn't know anyone at first, stuck on the farm with a tiny baby, but once we started coming to Playcentre, we met loads of new people."
If you want to know more, just call in to Playcentre on any morning or telephone 525 8114.
Clare Kitchen
