Tom Henihan
Express Staff
@SmokyRiverExprs
Prairie Parent Link “Parents N’ Tots” program is a parent and child (ages 0-5) play-based learning group. The 2016-2017 program has been running in McLennan and Girouxvill since September.
The program alternates every other week between McLennan and Girouxville: every first and third Tuesday in McLennan and every second and fourth Tuesday in Girouxville, from 1p.m to 3p.m. at both locations.
As of January 2017, Parents N’ Tots, which averages six parents and eleven kids per session, will move the McLennan meeting from its present space at the Archdiocese House to its new venue in the gym at Ecole Providence.
The Girouxville sessions will continue to take place at the Girouxville Community Hall.
“Our next session will be the third Tuesday in January at Ecole Providence,” says program coordinator, Peggy McCarthy. “That first week of January we are not going to have a program, which is perfect for moving.”
The Triple P Parenting program, which was tentatively set to begin in January or February has been postponed for the moment.
“We are going to wait on the Triple P Parenting because we have a lot of parents with babies at the moment and that program is more for parents with kids 2 years and up. Because it is dealing with behaviour, rules, things you do with children not babies, we may start that in the spring.”
Another feature offered in conjunction with the Parents and Tots program in McLennan is a Toy Lending Library.
With a $10 annual membership, parents can borrow four items for up to two weeks from the library, which will be available in Ecole Providence on the same days as the Parents and Tots sessions.
“We started this year,” says Milena McBain who coordinates the toy library. “In High Prairie, Children’s Resource Council (CRC) has got their library for a while but we’ve expanded and we have being trying to get McLennan up and running, along with Kinuso, Grouard and Sunset House.”
McBain says that as the toy library grows in each town it would be nice to have two or three parents step up and help.
Most of the library inventory is geared towards the “5 Pillars” of early childhood development that is recognized across the province. Library members can also borrow from the larger CRC library in High Prairie.
“You buy toys or something and 6 months later they are not useable. We can help you with that so don’t waste your money. Come and borrow something because your kid is changing fast,” says McBain.