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2009, Issue 1 - Autumn 2009
Educating, Connecting and Supporting families in Monash
You can start a Playgroup in the City of Monash
Playgroup is a regular time each week when parents, carers, babies, toddlers and preschool children get together and have fun!
Playgroups are community based low cost groups that can help ease family isolation.
Playgroup can be a happy place to go each week and gives adults a special time to spend with their child. Playgroup can become a local support system and a means of finding out about local services.
It can be the start of some longterm friendships that endure throughout the years as children move on through all their stages of development.
The City of Monash has over 40 community playgroups running 92 individual weekly playgroup sessions. That's 1,000 families and 1,500 children attending playgroup each week.
The range of playgroups in a municipality reflects the cultural, ethnic and social diversity of the local population. Most are open to all parents and carers of young children in local areas. Others have been established to cater for particular family needs.
Playgroups can extend a child's vocabulary through play experiences and reinforce cultural traditions when attending a playgroup with a language focus.
Families have many different reasons for establishing a playgroup with a particular focus. New parents often feel more comfortable with other people experiencing the same parenting issues as them.
Playgroup Victoria has over 85 different playgroup categories. Some are culturally specific eg. inter-country adoption, Italian, Hungarian, Horn of Africa, Somali and Turkish and more.
Other playgroups cater for fathers , grandparents, developmental delay, deaf parents, home schoolers, nannies and music.
Playgroups meet in a variety of venues including neighbourhood houses, kindergartens, community centres, church halls and maternal and child health centres.
You can start a playgroup.
Contact Playgroup Victoria now on 9388 1599 or email newgroups@playgroup.org.au, or visit their website at www.playgroup.org.au.
Updated: 22 May 2009
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