MONDAY MOTHER AND TODDLER GROUP

How quickly another year has passed. Monday Mother and Toddler Group have celebrated each of the seasons; Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn with special activities.

For Easter there were Easter goodies. For Mothers Day we showed how we value our mothers with flowers. Later in the year Fathers had their special day when the children made bookmarks to give to Dad. Summer was poor this year so we had fun indoors and finished the summer term with goody bags of fruit, and chocolate bars with picnic food. We were back for the last term before Christmas. Our party this year had our usual visit from Santa. He was made very welcome.

This year because we have had much younger children we haven’t been able to do a lot of craftwork. The year saw sorrows and joys. In April we were all saddened by the death of George, a little boy we had all known and loved. We had a joint Monday and Friday Mum’s and Toddlers and Nursery outreach through a ‘Body Shop’ evening and were able to buy a sewing machine for Malawi.

Eight Children’s Bibles were given out to those children who were moving on to the next stage of development. It is a joy to work with the children and watch how they grow from a few months to four years old. Whilst we haven’t seen many coming into the church we have to go forward in faith and pray that the contacts we have will bring forth seeds.

As usual the work would be difficult to sustain without the constant support of Doreen and Elaine. Many thanks.

Barbara Bradley

FRIDAY PARENT AND TODDLER GROUP

We continue to meet on Friday morning during term time and sometimes during the school holidays. We try to provide a friendly and welcoming place where mums, grandparents and other carers can come along for a chat and a cuppa whilst their children play.

As well as playing with toys and riding bikes and scooters the children also enjoy books, jigsaws and the ever popular play dough. We have also held a couple of sessions of pottery painting where both the children and their mums enjoyed expressing their creative talents. Our sessions usually end with a song-time often led by Priscilla or sometimes by the mums themselves and enjoyed by all.

The mums enjoy each others company and benefit from sharing experiences and the children learn valuable skills by interacting with each other and playing together. The group remains large but friendly and all who come along seem happy to be part of it. Several members of the group are Christians, some attending Dronfield Baptist Church, and we hope God’s love is reflected throughout the group.

Quite a few of the mums and toddlers and their wider families came along to the Christingle event in early December - they very much enjoyed this experience of Dronfield Baptist Church and it will be good to build on this into 2009.

Close and enduring friendships often develop and many of the mums meet up during the rest of the week as a result of first meeting on Friday mornings.

We have remained busy throughout 2008 with an average membership of around 32 adults and 40 children. There has been a steady flow of youngsters moving on to nursery or school during the year allowing us to welcome several new members and we have also been blessed with arrival of 5 new siblings.

During the year, we have supported “Children in Need”, the Leonard Cheshire “Tea for Ability” event and donated money towards the work of Aquaid Lifeline in Malawi. We enjoyed our Christmas party one Friday morning in December, celebrating with games, singing, party food and a visit from Santa. Many thanks also to David Grime who enjoyed being our Santa.

Although throughout the year I have been responsible for the running of the group, Elly Walters and Priscilla Hills have been alongside me to help and Rachel Simpkins has now joined “the team” I would like to thank Elly, Priscilla and Rachel for their support and for the friendship and caring which they give to all those who attend the group. Thanks too to Ann and Laura who help each week with setting up and clearing away.

As always, it continues to be my pleasure and privilege to serve God and Dronfield Baptist Church on Friday mornings.

Wendy Temple

NURSERY

Our numbers have remained low, but the children enjoy themselves learning through play and having fun – both inside and outside in the garden and on visits. Once the building work finished in the Civic Centre we were able to get to the bottle bank and Leabrook Valley to walk through and end up at the pet shop – a time to watch the pets at play.

We continue to work in the garden – planting seeds, flowers and vegetables. It’s good for the children to be able to pick and eat their vegetables. During the year besides inviting parents to help us celebrate festivals, we have looked at the seasons, our homes, animals & their young, and patterns around us.

More changes with learning outcomes, focused learning objectives – resulting in more training courses and paperwork to be done.

Ann Athey & Laura Simpson