Groups
“Little Splodgers” @ The Methodist Church Hall
“Little Splodgers” @ The Methodist Church Hall
Talking with Esther Taylor of ‘Little Splodgers’ (15th March 2011)
Rochford Life: When does Little Splodgers run:
Esther: The session lasts altogether an hour, from 9.30 to 10.30am on a Monday morning.
RL: And how much do you charge?
Esther: It is £4.50 per session but we ask that Mums pay up front half-termly, more so that we’ve got an idea of numbers, who is attending, and what material we need to bring in.
RL: Little Splodgers? Why Little Splodgers?
Esther: I wanted to set up a group that was for pre-school children and my background is arts and crafts and working with pre-school children so I decided to combine the two and Little Splodgers was the name we came up with.
RL: Splodgers meaning making messes or is it more constructive than that?
Esther: There is an element of both. The first thing they do when they come in is get an apron on, then we sit down all together and do a structured craft activity. This last week we did Treasure Boxes so they had a blank box and they stuck things on and decorated it with glitter.
RL: This is children under the age of four or five?
Esther: Yes, that’s right. Our youngest is ten or eleven months and the oldest, probably coming up to four.
RL: Presumably with a fair bit of help from mum?
Esther: Oh yes, Mums have to get involved. They don’t sit back and drink coffee while the children do their stuff. Mums have to be very much part of it. Together they do the craft activity for fifteen to twenty minutes and then we move on to the messy play, which is much more free form. This last week we had cooked spaghetti and we have these trays that it is in, lots of cooked spaghetti! Yes, it’s in big tray on tables at their height with spoons and cups that they can tip it in and out of. This last week it ended up with a couple of the kids getting so carried away that they were throwing it on the floor, which is fine, because they then took their shoes and socks off and thought it great fun to be in it in their bare feet. It was really good fun!
RL: Tactile learning?
Esther: Yes, definitely. We did eventually have to clear it all up and move on to the other messy activity which was Playdough, where we had Playdough and cutters and rollers and all kinds of things out and so the kids could drift between the two activities, and then to finish we have tea, coffee and juice.
RL: Benefits?
Esther: Yes, there are benefits for both children and the Mums. For the children it allows them to explore their creativity, and it allows them to discover that getting messy is OK in the right environment. For some of the children, to start with, they are quite hesitant at getting their hands in and touching things and learning different textures, but after a while they learn that it is OK and that they are allowed to.
With some children you have to reinforce that and Mums have to say, it’s OK, it’s all right in this context. A lot of it involves food – we’ve used jelly as well. At meal times you’re obviously telling them, no, you can’t, but in this instance it is OK. It’s a great learning exercise. So it allows them to explore different textures and shapes and smells and generally have fun.
Then for the Mums there is obviously the benefit of having to be able to do this kind of thing but not in the house. In fact I reiterated to myself why we do it like this when I allowed my two girls to play with some of the left-over jelly from the other week. Not only did one of them get covered from head to toe in jelly, but so did the rest of my conservatory! So this is something not to be tried at home, but in the hall that we have they can get messy and it won’t matter, and the Mums don’t have the stress of clearing it all up!
RL: How many do you think you can take?
Esther: Probably about twenty or twenty five. I think if we reach twenty we’ll think about running another session.
RL: This is purely in term time?
Esther: Yes but we are looking at doing activities in the school holidays because we’re aware that so often everything stops in the school holidays and if you just have pre-school children, if you want to go out it costs a lot of money and you have to contend with all the school children as well. So we are going to look at sessions run purely aimed at pre-school children and then maybe later down the line, brave the older children where they can be left with us without the parent there.
We are also looking at how we can take the arts and crafts into schools. For a lot of teachers if art or craft isn’t their background, it can be an area that can get skimmed over, so we’re going to look at offering schools either a one-off session to either a one-year group or doing work during their PPA’s time, or even running an after school club with arts and crafts if that’s what a school would like.
RL: That’s quite an ambitious programme.
Esther: Yes, but that’s not all. We will also do Little Splodgers parties. We offer three different levels of packages and there is great variation that you can choose – see our web-site above. We’ll either come to a hall or house or whatever to do it.
RL: Is there anything else that people need to know about you.
Esther: I don’t think so, except we are CRB checked and have public liability insurance. That probably covers it all.
RL: Right. Excellent. Well thank you for that. I hope you are very successful in your venture.
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Rochford Life: When does Little Splodgers run:
Esther: The session lasts altogether an hour, from 9.30 to 10.30am on a Monday morning.
RL: And how much do you charge?
Esther: It is £4.50 per session but we ask that Mums pay up front half-
RL: Little Splodgers? Why Little Splodgers?
Esther: I wanted to set up a group that was for pre-
RL: Splodgers meaning making messes or is it more constructive than that?
Esther: There is an element of both. The first thing they do when they come in is get an apron on, then we sit down all together and do a structured craft activity. This last week we did Treasure Boxes so they had a blank box and they stuck things on and decorated it with glitter.
RL: This is children under the age of four or five?
Esther: Yes, that’s right. Our youngest is ten or eleven months and the oldest, probably coming up to four.
RL: Presumably with a fair bit of help from mum?
Esther: Oh yes, Mums have to get involved. They don’t sit back and drink coffee while the children do their stuff. Mums have to be very much part of it. Together they do the craft activity for fifteen to twenty minutes and then we move on to the messy play, which is much more free form. This last week we had cooked spaghetti and we have these trays that it is in, lots of cooked spaghetti! Yes, it’s in big tray on tables at their height with spoons and cups that they can tip it in and out of. This last week it ended up with a couple of the kids getting so carried away that they were throwing it on the floor, which is fine, because they then took their shoes and socks off and thought it great fun to be in it in their bare feet. It was really good fun!
RL: Tactile learning?
Esther: Yes, definitely. We did eventually have to clear it all up and move on to the other messy activity which was Playdough, where we had Playdough and cutters and rollers and all kinds of things out and so the kids could drift between the two activities, and then to finish we have tea, coffee and juice.
RL: Benefits?
Esther: Yes, there are benefits for both children and the Mums. For the children it allows them to explore their creativity, and it allows them to discover that getting messy is OK in the right environment. For some of the children, to start with, they are quite hesitant at getting their hands in and touching things and learning different textures, but after a while they learn that it is OK and that they are allowed to.
With some children you have to reinforce that and Mums have to say, it’s OK, it’s all right in this context. A lot of it involves food – we’ve used jelly as well. At meal times you’re obviously telling them, no, you can’t, but in this instance it is OK. It’s a great learning exercise. So it allows them to explore different textures and shapes and smells and generally have fun.
Then for the Mums there is obviously the benefit of having to be able to do this kind of thing but not in the house. In fact I reiterated to myself why we do it like this when I allowed my two girls to play with some of the left-
RL: How many do you think you can take?
Esther: Probably about twenty or twenty five. I think if we reach twenty we’ll think about running another session.
RL: This is purely in term time?
Esther: Yes but we are looking at doing activities in the school holidays because we’re aware that so often everything stops in the school holidays and if you just have pre-
RL: That’s quite an ambitious programme.
Esther: Yes, but that’s not all. We will also do Little Splodgers parties. We offer three different levels of packages and there is great variation that you can choose – see our web-
RL: Is there anything else that people need to know about you.
Esther: I don’t think so, except we are CRB checked and have public liability insurance. That probably covers it all.
RL: Right. Excellent. Well thank you for that. I hope you are very successful in your venture.
To return to top of page, please CLICK HERE
