Desert Rose Playgroup News

This term, our playgroup parents worked together to make simple bean bags for the playroom. It was a lovely opportunity to live into something central to Steiner early childhood: when adults are engaged in calm, purposeful, real work, children are supported to settle into their own work of play nearby. The atmosphere of sewing, filling, and finishing by hand offered the children something worthy of imitation, while also bringing a quiet sense of purpose to the room.

We are grateful to the craft group for their guidance, preparation, and the resources they provided to help make this activity possible. Their support made it easy for parents to take up the work with confidence and helped create a shared experience of creating something that felt both practical and nourishing.

The finished bean bags are a beautiful example of a simple handmade toy with many possibilities. Because they are open-ended, they can become almost anything in the child’s imagination: food in the play kitchen, treasures in a basket, stones in small world play, or special parcels to carry and sort. They also offer a rich sensory experience through their weight, shape, and texture, inviting children to feel, grasp, stack, balance, and explore. These bean bags now carry not only practical value in the playroom, but also the warmth of having been lovingly made by the hands of our parent community.

This term we also welcome Alice Hatzimihail to the playgroup team as a relief facilitator. Alice has attended playgroup with her own children since 2022 and will already be known to many of our families. You may see Alice join your playgroup day from time to time, and we are glad to be building a strong team of relief facilitators, especially as winter and cold & flu season approaches and there are times when facilitators or their children may need to stay home. 

As the winter solstice approaches, we will gently close the term by capturing the returning light with handmade lanterns and the warming story of the little bilbies who build a fire.

Playgroup will finish for the term in Week 9 for all groups, except for Monday playgroup, whose final day will be held in Week 10 on Monday, June 15. 

It will be a lovely way to bring the term to its close.