Giving something back to our Children’s Centre

We are very lucky to have two fantastic Children’s Centres here.  Now my son is at pre-school we don’t get to use them so much, but what a godsend they’ve been in the past!

We went to a lot of their Stay and Play sessions from birth onwards, and I was lucky enough to get a place for my son at their ‘Take a Break’ crèche for a while.  You can’t believe how wonderful a two-hour ‘break’ once a week can be.  My husband works unbelievably long hours, so I have done much of the parenting single-handed since my son was born, and getting this little break, saved my sanity at the time.  It also showed Monkey that he could be ‘unattached’ from Mummy for a little while and enjoy the experience too.

So, when the chance came to be involved in a craft course last May at the Children’s Centre I was there.  My son got looked after in the crèche for a couple of hours, once a week, and I got to meet some Mum’s and do something creative.  I didn’t know what we were actually going to do until the first session started.

There were seven of us and our tutor.  She told us that her idea was to make a patchwork wall hanging for the Centre (the two Centre’s would take turns in hanging it) – what a great idea!  I loved the idea of giving something back to the Centres’ who had helped us so much.  I’d never done any patchwork before so would learn a new skill.  There were some experienced sewers in the group, me – more of a cross stitcher, and a couple who had done no sewing before at all.  When we were shown the plan, I don’t think any of us thought it could be done in four weeks, in the end, it took five sessions, with some work at home, but we all pulled together and had a great time.  The time just flew by, we helped each other out and gave encouragement when needed.  I for one really enjoyed the experience.  I can’t explain the sense of achievement we all felt when we saw the completed hanging – amazing!  We had all had a part to play in something for the future.  We had our names sewn on the back for prosperity 🙂  I should add that this was pretty much all done BY HAND!

Our patchwork wall hanging

22 thoughts on “Giving something back to our Children’s Centre

  1. I also use our local childrens centre stay and plays. What a lovely thing to make. Xx #PoCoLo

  2. Good work! What a lovely achievement and nice to give something back. I am completely rubbish at all craft, so can’t imagine doing anything like this, but admire people who can.
    Found you on PoCoLo BTW 🙂

  3. I think children’s centres are fantastic – so under-rated. It’s great to see that you were able to get something out of your session as well as giving something back. #PoCoLo

  4. What a lovely post. I think Children Centres are SO important and my heart sank when it was announced that they would be losing funding. Our local centre is just up the path from our house and, apart from being a really important hub of the community, has been the one thing that has kept me sane whilst having 2 kids under 4. Our local Stay & Play group was stopped due to lack of funding for staff, so a few of us Mums got together and agreed to volunteer to run it at the Centre, so we do now and it is going from strength to strength. I also used to run a baby music group called Baby Bebop with Sarah from @afieldsomewhere I feel so great giving back to my local Children’s Centre as it’s something I believe in so strongly. I LOVE your quilt idea. I might suggest that idea for our centre! Popped across from Gammon and Chips (@maddiesinclair) via #PoCoLo Well done on being thev#newbieshowcase !

    1. Thanks for coming over, and looks like you’ve given back far more than me. We’re very proud of our wall hanging, some of the ladies are now back overseas, so nice to know that a part of them will always be there. #PoCoLo and #newbieshowcase are also such great ideas, glad to have been a part of them 🙂

  5. Your children centres sound fab! How lovely to do something different and creative meeting other Mum’s while Monkey is being really well taken care of. Sounds like a perfect balance. Lovely to find your blog through #PoCoLo – am following you now! xx

  6. Hi, found you via #PoCoLo. I’m also over 40 and live in Oxfordshire, Witney to be precise. Do you plan to come to the Barefoot books meet-up in Oxford on the 24th? Wouldbe lovely to meet you.

    1. Hi, thanks for popping over from #PoCoLo. Yes, I am going on 24th, my first BritMums meet up. I can’t stay for the whole meeting as need to get back to pick Monkey up from pre-school. I’ll probably be there early though as have been meaning to go to Barefoot Books for ages. Will be nice to know that one name too! I’m Mary and look forward to seeing you there 🙂

  7. I’m bringing my little man with me, as I understand it is OK to bring kids, and I have nowhere or noone to leave him with, so probably won’t be staying all the time. I know a few bloggers but only from their blogs, never met them in real life

  8. thats lovely! i am rubbish at crafts, would be really proud to make something like that. i loved my childrens centre – i used to be there pretty much every single day lol!! still find them good but not as great where we live now, would have gone crazy without it when i had my first 2 boys tho!

  9. Brilliant that you gave something back. I love our Children’s Centre, but sadly it is being completely squeezed out of existence and only people who are in the ‘target groups’ are allowed into sessions now I hear – and that is not me. Funnily enough, we have a craft group in our CC as well and they were doing quilting!

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