Issue 69

Winter 2020

This year alongside our ongoing messages, activities and groups wehavedecided to have an underlying focus foreach term. We are starting out with theintriguing theme of Lets Imagine. Thismeans that we will share some key messages with you through Facebookand our new Instagram account, are incorporating some new groups into ourtimetable and will share some ideas withyou on our home visits. Some of the newupcoming activities on this theme include:

• Curiosity Café – on world book day on 5th March 2020

• Ipad babies – (SLT workshop for parentsin the digital age)

• Little Einstein’s –(ways to build your baby’s brain)

• Igniting the Spark ( workshop for parents on nurturing your child’screativity)

• Through your child’s eyes – (learn about the importance of play for your child)

• Baby Imaginarium (awaken your babies senses throughour interactive imagination museum)

• Once upon a time (imaginary musical storytime)

Imaginary and creative play help your child to develop their social and emotional skills, their thinking skills as well as their speech,language and communication so as a parent it is important for you to know how to nurture this. Books and stories are a really important way of doing this. So remember if you have any books your child has grown out of please consider passing them ontoour Little Free Library for other children and families to enjoy.

See you soon Siobhan Wallace Programme Manager

New Year – New Ideas!

The Newsletter for Families Registered with Dungannon & Coalisland Sure Start

DCNEWS

Winter

Edition

☎ Dungannon: 028 8772 9695 www.surestartdc.org Dungannon & Coalisland SureStart

Story and Rhyme and Rhymes before TeatimeStimulating your child’s imagination is a key reason to come along to our storytime sessions. Story and Rhyme Sessions in Dungannon and Coalisland Library take placefortnightly. During the sessions you will learn lots of fun and interactive nursery rhymes that your child will love singing at home. If you are not already a member of the library there is anopportunity to become a member and borrow up to 10books at a time!

Rhymes before Teatime takeplace in Dungannon Sure Startfortnightly on a Monday afternoon. Children are able toparticipate in their favouritenursery rhymes and listen totheir favourite story books.

In Dungannon and Coalisland Sure Start we are very inspired by theReggio Emiia Approach . This approach regards children as curiousindividuals with huge potential and is very much in keeping with ourtheme this term of Lets Imagine.

Over the past few years the Develpmental Programmes for 2 – 3 YearOld teams have worked hard to incorporate the Reggio Emilia Approach into their rooms giving the children many unique opportunities to develop their curiosity and exploration skills.

An important part of this approach is the physical environment. Allrooms are welcoming, realistic, appealing, embrace nature and filledwith purposeful materials aimed at enhancing your childs experiencewith us.

We have replaced plastic toys with open ended resources and looseparts. We using natural materials and low cost, no cost salvaged resources to provoke the children’s imagination and curiousity.

The photographs below are just a little insight into the wonderfullycreative minds of the children attending our 6 Programmes.

Developmental Programmes for 2 – 3 Year Olds

www.surestartdc.org

Multiple Births Group

We are happy to announce that we are now working in collaboration with Twins Trust, a charity that is dedicated toimproving the lives of thousands of families with twins, triplets or higher multiples. The group is a great chance foryou to meet other parents in a similar situation. As well as many exciting play opportunities a representative fromTwins Trust will be attending the group offering advice and support.

Our next group meets on Tuesday 24th March.

Dads and SureStartThe strong bond and attachment formed through

play and quality interactions between dads / male

carers and children builds a firm foundation for your

child’s learning, development and over all wellbeing.

At Dungannon and Coalisland Sure Start we provide

groups especially for dads/male carers and their

children giving them that uninterrupted 1-1 time that

they may not always get.

Papa’s and PJ’sThis group offers calming and relaxing sensory

activities to help children settle before bedtime.

Come and join us at our next Papa’s and PJ’s on

Tuesday 18th February from 6.30pm – 7.30pm.

Me and DadMe and Dad takes place on the last Saturday of

every month from 11-12.30pm. It is a morning full of

interactive activities, games, songs and ideas that

you can take away and replicate at home.

Incredible BabiesWe are pleased to announce that Incredible Babies is going to be running atDungannon and Coalisland Sure Startfrom January – March 2020. This is thefirst time we have included this Programme in our timetable for a whileand we would like to invite parents andbabies to join us for the 8 week Programme. The great thing about thisProgramme is that the baby who needs tobe under 1, stays with you!

The Programme is about getting to knowyour baby by looking at a range of areasincluding your babies emerging sense ofself, how to read your babies cues, tips on how to encourage your babies physical and language developmentand giving you as a parent, support within a group setting.

Incredible Babies will start – 14/01/2020 for 8 weeks

If you are interested in this programme please contact the office to book your place or get more information

Your Space (Our young parents group)

In September we ran our Your Space group again,developed especially for our Young Mums (aged17-22). The group ran for 5 weeks, to give ourYoung Mums some much needed “me time”,whilst their little ones were cared for in the crèche.The girls chose their activities, we made sugarscrubs, upcycled photo frames, created “mystory” journals and had a “mummy and me” Photoshoot.

The group is very relaxed, we chat together overa cuppa and some treats, and work creatively onour projects.. One of our mums made a journal togive to her grandmother for Christmas of her ownchildhood which included photos of herself,where she grew up and a song that her grandmother sang to her as a child.

We love it when our girls come up with their ownideas and we try to facilitate these as much aspossible.

So if you’re under 23 years and are pregnant orhave a child and would be interested in being partof Your Space, it will be running again from Thursday 20th February. Just give us a call at theoffice and we’ll get you booked in.