Birmingham PlayCare Network has recently been supporting a family after school programme focusing on craft and healthy cooking. The eight sessions were delivered at Nechells Pod and were accessible to all families in the local area.
Uniting families
The programme provided families with the opportunity to come together and use The Scrapstore Birmingham materials to create items such as puppets, cars and moneyboxes.
One of the craft sessions offered the children the chance to create their very own board games, stimulating thought around what rules they would like in their game as well as design-based considerations for custom made counters and dice.
Putting designs into practice
Once the board games were complete, the children sat with family members to play each of their games. Ellee Gunnell, Project Worker at Birmingham PlayCare Network said:
“It was a lovely moment to watch as children are often swayed towards computer games and mobile phones once they leave school for the day, so to have the opportunity to sit with family members and share time and laughter together was something that Birmingham PlayCare Network is very proud to be a part of.”
Staying healthy
Activities within the programme also included healthy cooking, where the staff at Birmingham PlayCare Network spent time with the children to identify foods that are rich in nutritional value. Whilst doing this, children were encouraged to explore different fruit and vegetables, including ones that they had potentially never thought to try before.
Tasty!
Whilst each session saw the families create culinary delights such as fruit and vegetable kebabs, pancakes and fruit parfait, the fun cam alongside the tasting session.
Birmingham PlayCare Network would like to thank all of the families for taking part and for highlighting that the art of conversation and family time is still as important as ever.