Crèche

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”  ~Mark Twain 

Another year has passed and babies are growing, toddlers starting nursery and children off to school.  We have been busy welcoming new families and additional babies into our world as well as continuing to care and provide activities and toys for our children, allowing them to develop and feel secure  in our predictable, safe haven.   The children and babies continue to delight us with smiles and their achievements ~ first tentative steps, new words/phrases, amazing artwork and creations. 

The toys we offer each day ~ baby toys, construction, rockers, small world, have either been purchased by Friary Drop-In or, as is usually the case, been a donation from a member of the public.  Someone who made the decision not to put them on ebay or have a car boot sale but donate to our charity.  Some of toys donated will be put out for people to help themselves, others put away for those occasions when a family will have escaped a difficult situation with nothing.  At Christmas some generous people and organisations will give toys for the children and there is a mega task of finding the right toy for each child and sometimes a last minute panic!  On the day of the party Santa Claus arrives to the sound of bells, sits in his big chair and calls each child by name, they walk or are carried to receive their present ~ sometimes nearly as big as they are!  We sing him a song ~ he likes ‘Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’, say a big ‘thank you’ and he goes on his merry way leaving behind smiling faces.  A little boy who hadn’t been to see us since our Christmas party didn’t want to go home at the end of the morning but wanted to ‘wait until Christmas’ and it was only July!    

I think we often underestimate the positive contribution our crèche has on children and parents, it’s somewhere there’s always a happy ‘hello’, an opportunity to talk, a comforting drink and something to eat in a warm room put together to create a joyful space to play.  It’s thanks to the kindness of strangers, for their donations, the gifts they give at Christmas, to Santa Claus for coming to see us on our special day, to volunteers who kindly make party food and step in during holiday times…let’s not underestimate their valuable contribution either.  THANK YOU from Kathryn, Carol and Charlotte ~ the Creche team.

We thought you might like to see little handprints and a rhyme, to remind us of these special days!                                  

Kathryn Frearson,

Crèche Supervisor