Sunday 1 April 2018


Play Date Activity

“Play is the work of child.” Maria Montessori



 In today’s world everyone is busy in their own small world. No one has time for others. Everybody is running their own race. Technology has taken all the time, children are no different {if you have read my last blog on freedom (http://sonavitiwa.blogspot.in/2018/01/freedom.html} than you will understand what I meant to say.) Little kids are also addicted to phones and I pads. These days they knew much more things on phone than their parents. I am not against screen time or giving phones to kids, sometimes I also do the same. I know it’s the requirement of time, but I want my son to get involved more in outdoor activities and to be more social (hope he will also feel same when he grows up finger crossed.)

We came to know about playdate activity which was organized by a preschool in our locality. Got to know about this through known lady in our society, who is also a mother. We met with each other daily in garden when kids were busy in playing and we mothers discussed how to keep them engage. We shifted to Pune few months back, so we didn’t have much friends over here who have kids of same age to plan regular play date at someone’s place. After discussing with husband, I decided to go for it. But everyone else in my family is quite apprehensive about my decision. They all thought he is too young for such kind of activity (he is 15 months old). They all said I am putting extra pressure on kid, he might get afraid of the school set up and will get uncomfortable in the new environment. But I was very clear in my head, if he did not feel comfortable I will not continue the playdate activity. I was bombarded with lots and lots of questions

1.Many of my friends and family asked me why play date activity is important?
 2.What made me think to join this activity?
 3.My son is youngest of all the kids, aren’t you afraid he might catch some infection?
4.Why you want to get rid of your responsibility so soon?

The play date activity was scheduled from 7th feb to 12th feb 2018. Timings for the play date was 10-12pm, this 2 hours session included rhyme session, activity for particular day, lunch break and outdoor play.

·        Rhyme session includes regular poems to make children calm down and make them settle for the further activity.
·        Every day activity includes paper tearing, painting, sticker pasting, all these activities help is fine motor skill development.
·        Story telling session covers telling of story through hand puppets, which helps in improving listening skills and verbal proficiency.
·        Outdoor play was unstructured play which includes slides, swings and see saw play.
·        School provided some time for free play for kids when other children are busy in doing activity, by that time kids can play with blocks, puzzles, and kitchen set.



So finally, the day, Monday came and we reached our destination. First day was more of an orientation day where we get to know about school, their vision and mission.

On the next day after orientation we got little late for our play date program and missed the rhyme session. But we were lucky we got to attend the next activity which was paper tearing activity (this activity helps children to develop their fine motor skills) we elder thought is was a simple thing to tear a paper. But have you ever seen small kids to tore paper, it’s very difficult for them to use their index finger and thumb for tearing the paper. AJ likes to tear the crepe paper, but he didn’t like to paste it on fish. So he left the activity in middle and start roaming here and there.

On Wednesday we did coloring activity which he really likes. He did it with the help of mommy. That was his first experience with the water color. He likes to make strokes on paper with brush.

On Thursday we did dough play, made different animal with the stencils. AJ was not interested in playing with dough. He did not like  

On Friday we made basket with the paper glass and decorate it with different shapes made up of glitter paper.

Saturday was the last day but it was the much fun filled day followed by graduation ceremony and party. School organized painting session of kids with their fathers. We did a small painting with the daddy dearest and AJ got his first participation certificate.

With all this activity daily we had rhyme session, storytelling session, and free play. Every program has its pros and cons and I am listing few of them.

·        The first and foremost thing was that I was very clear in my mind, if my kid didn’t enjoy the session we will quit the activity and not pressurize him to go further.

·        But to my concern my boy enjoyed the session and he was very much comfortable over there.

·        It helped us in improving our kid social skills as we lived in nuclear setup, we didn’t get much time to interact with other, except the evening play time in the garden.


·        Our scheduled get more organized, than the other days when we were at home. Both me and AJ get ready on time with our bag packs.

·        There are chances the kid might get scared because of new people. Kids are not comfortable with the strangers. If they are not ready to mingle with others, let them be by themselves

·        If child is not ready to certain activity, don’t compel them to do it. If we force them, they will get irritated and in future might be not like it.

This all we had during our play day activity and we really enjoyed it. If I get this opportunity again will definitely go for it. If you also get chance to do something like this with your kids, don’t miss that because you will be amazed to see your kid in new environment. They will definitely surprise you with their exploration and inquisitiveness.


It is a Happy talent to know how to play.

Ralph Waldo Emerson


AJ First Painting
Play Dough Activity
Graduation Day
Painting With papa

13 comments:

  1. Anadi, well done! Sona, it was a nice read :)

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  2. Excellent, Very thoughtful. Keep up good work.

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  3. I am sure you will be ready with a book to publish on parenting after couple of years.. Keep writing.. I wish i could develop that habbit

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  4. This play date activity sounds fun. Kids do enjoy and get to learn a lot from activities like these . The best thing about it is that they are so very well structured.

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  5. I went through the same trouble of moving to a new place with no kids of my daughters age...I can truly understood you would have been thrilled to see the new changes in your son, Coz i did the same.

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  6. There is no doubt about the importance of play dates, the kids learn so much from seeing other kids and their activities.
    Very well written :)

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  7. These days its extremely imp to keep kids engaged in such kind of activities or else they befriend the screen very easily. Starting early with constructive activities really helps in overall development of the kids.

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  8. These play dates are so interesting and important. I will bookmark your article for preference. Thank you so much.

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  9. Awww there was a graduation day as well. So glad the play date turned out awesome!

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