Ask anyone who has spent time on the mat at a Playcentre session and they will tell you the same thing. The best learning rarely looks like learning. It looks like paint, and blocks, and a three year old insisting on reading the same book four times in a row.
Glendene Playcentre is a parent-led early childhood space where young children get the chance to grow, learn and play alongside their families and other local tamariki. There is no cost to families to take part, parents and caregivers are part of the session rather than dropping off at the gate, so the whole whānau is learning together.
Like a lot of small community-run groups, the centre relies on local funders to keep its shelves and its resource cupboards stocked with the good stuff. The kind of resources that spark creativity and joyful learning, as the team puts it.
This time the support came through our Supporters Club, with the team at The Taphouse Avondale putting their monthly grant towards a set of beautiful new pukapuka for the centre. “Ngā tamariki are diving right in, soaking up the rich world of emergent literacy,” the Glendene Playcentre team told us.
Emergent literacy is the stage before reading properly begins. Holding a book the right way up, turning pages, recognising that those squiggles carry meaning, retelling a story from the pictures. It is the foundation everything else gets built on, and it happens best when reading feels like fun rather than work.
Learn more about Glendene Playcentre at playcentre.org.nz/centre/glendene or follow them on Facebook.
If you or your organisation could use support from The Trusts, find out how to apply at thetrusts.co.nz/our-funds.
