Organizing a Play Date

Learning to make friends and interact with others is a critical life skill; it should be acquired at a young age. One of the major benefits of daycare for a child is the learning of social skills, and thereby making friends. These friendships should not be limited to the time spent in daycare.

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It is important to nurture such relationships beyond the daycare paradigm; different environments like a home, the seaside or a public park require different social skills. Play dates are a great way of providing your child opportunities to have fun and form friendships in different places and circumstances other than those of daycare.

Parents of your child’s friends will be organizing play dates, and your turn will come soon enough. Organizing the event does take some effort; however, it is not something to be dreaded. A successful play date is not just meant for your child and her friends. It is an occasion for you as well to meet other parents, socialize and have fun.  Here are a few tips on organizing a play date that will minimize your stress.

Limit the number of children

You can limit the number for the first play date at least. It will give you a chance to understand what the pressures are and learn how to deal with them. Henceforard, you can increase the number to a comfortable size.

Set a fixed start and end time

Hopefully, this will ensure that the children arrive and leave around the same time. There will be clashes with nap times etc. Tell those parents whose kids can’t make it that you will have a suitable time for the next play date you host.

The toys in your home may not be what some kids like

Ask the kids to bring a toy each. This will enable every child to play with a familiar toy, and allow the others to experience something new. A warning: be prepared for toy breakages! Also, if some toys cannot be located when the kids are leaving, promise them and their parents that you will locate and send those toys later.

Limit the kids to just a few rooms

That will reduce the amount of cleaning you have to do afterwards. Lock the doors of rooms where you don’t want the kids to mess up with the things kept there; the same thing applies to the use of baby gates. Make sure you remove breakables and dangerous objects from the rooms that will be in use.

Lock up pets

Not all children love animals; the noise the kids make could scare the pets and make them behave badly, leaving the kids upset and some of them in tears.

Keep the snacks simple

There will surely be dirty fingerprints all over after the play date. Therefore, the less sticky the snacks are the less will be the cleanup and the less will be the possibilities of infection.

The right daycare will no doubt be the best place for your child to develop the most desirable social skills. Play dates in other environments will help to reinforce many of the social skills your child learns there. Doing your part by hosting play dates will enrich that experience.