Noah went for his first playdate with this group of children, all born in the same year, and it was definitely a fun-filled experience for us.
We met some of the mums and kids when we visited The Animal Resort together, and went to one of their homes today for the playdate. It’s somewhat like homeschooling/co-op learning, but whatever it’s called, it’s a lot of fun! I was worried that Noah wouldn’t be very cooperative, because I had to wake him up earlier than usual this morning, and also because he can be rather cautious around other children, but my fears were unfounded, and he seemed pretty happy being there. (Pardon the blurry shots. It’s really tough getting nice photos when the kids are all busy moving around!)
He got to have his own seat on the MRT ride there in the morning, which made him really happy, as you can see.
We started off with some sensory bin fun, with some homemade coloured salt as ‘sand’. Initially, Noah refused to touch anything in the sensory bin at all, and just stood there watching everyone play. After some encouragement, he decided that it was safe to pick up the cup, and started scooping the sand, like the others.
What are we supposed to do?
Like this?
Next up was the Welcome song, followed by a quick session on the colour orange, as well as the triangle shape. There was a catchy song for both the colours and shapes too!
Then, there was story-time, and one of the other mums read a book about colours.
To continue the theme of colours and shapes, the art session which followed was to create their own messes masterpieces with paint and plastic shapes.
Waiting for the materials to be prepared
Stamp stamp stamp
His ‘masterpiece’
Check out how neat one of the other girls was!
Snack-time didn’t go so well for Noah, because he refused to eat any of the blueberries, biscuits, or bread given, and focused on shoving them into my mouth instead. Sigh. I allowed him to leave the table earlier, to play with the host’s collection of cars at the play area, since he was clearly not hungry.
Prodding the blueberries
Shoving a blueberry into his mouth, before spitting it out again
While the children snacked, C, the mummy host, prepared the different Practical Life stations, so that the kids could get busy immediately after eating. Noah definitely needs a lot more practice in these activities, because he lost interest really quickly, even before he could complete a single station!
Wondering how to string the wooden pieces together
He liked playing with the pom poms
Matching the teddy bears
Practising his pincer grip with pegs
Trying to match the covers to the right bottles/containers
The kids headed out to the corridor once again for some physical exercise of sorts, since the playground was too wet from the rain earlier this morning. I think Noah enjoyed this the most! The children had to take turns running to L, who held a container full of different cardboard shapes, pick out a circle, then run back to the starting point, to deposit the circle into the box.
Waiting for their turns
Picking out a circle
RUN!
After all the running, they settled back indoors again, to sing some action songs. We started with the Rainbow/Colours song, followed by The Wheels on the Bus, and finally, the Goodbye song.
Singing together
After that, the mums decided to bring the kids out for lunch together, and despite our intention to chat and discuss next week’s programme, we were all too busy trying to get our own children to eat properly. Oops.
The kids (minus one) with Singa the Courtesy Lion, before lunch
What an eventful morning! I really enjoyed meeting all the mums and children, and I’m so thankful to be able to join their little group. Coincidentally, one of the mums is actually my secondary school classmate, whom I haven’t met since we graduated, and it was really nice seeing her again. I was very impressed by how organised the session went, (the theme of colours and shapes ran seamlessly throughout the whole session), and how the mums all took turns to lead the different activities. I’m definitely looking forward to our next playdate already! 🙂
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