Nutty's Holiday Clubs
Spring is coming - thank goodness!
January and February can always feel like a bit of a slog. We all know how it goes: go to work in the dark, come home in the dark, too cold and wet to go anywhere and following an expensive December and - if you are self employed - a January tax bill, the early part of the year can certainly feel a bit blue.
But with the milder weather over the last couple of weeks and the absence of just about any rain this month (I’ve jinxed it now, I haven’t I), it really does feel as though Spring is on the way. Bring on the sunshine, leaves on the trees, daffodils and more than a few hot cross buns!
Here at Nutty’s, the arrival of Spring chiefly means one thing: we are gearing up for our Easter Holiday Club!
Plenty of you are no stranger to our Nutty’s Holiday Clubs (NHC) - we run them through several of the school holidays (including an epic six week club in the summer) and they have become a staple of the Nutty’s calendar.
But for those of you who are not familiar, what are they?…
Well, professionally speaking, Nutty’s Holiday Club is a childcare facility for children aged between five and eleven to enjoy a range of activities in a fun and safe environment during the school holidays. In Nutty’s speak, that means one giant extended Nutty’s party full of awesomeness!
Nutty’s Holiday Club is held between 8:30am and 5pm, Monday to Friday at the brilliant South London Theatre (aka The Old Fire Station) in West Norwood.
The days are jam-packed with games, creative activities, trips to the park and more! A typical day looks like this…
8:30am to 9am - Arrival
Children are dropped off by parents
9am - Free Play. Children can choose what they would like to do from a range of activities including board games, reading, colouring in, table tennis and table football.
9:30am - Golden Rules and Games. We set out our ‘house rules’ and play some group games to get the energy going for the day.
10:30am - Drama
Each day has a different topic. These may include improvisation, mime, character work, comedy and small devising tasks.
11:30am - Snack Time
12pm - Games in the Park. Some game are just too epic for indoors, so we head to the park to expand the repertoire of amusements. Outdoor games include Shark Island, The Chain Game and Giants, Dwarfs and Wizards.
1pm - LUNCH!
2pm - Free Play at the Park
3pm - Snack Time
3:30pm - Arts and Crafts. Everything from mask making to ‘make your own monster’.
4:30pm Tidy Up Time and Show and Tell
5pm - Home
So that’s a typical day at NHC. It’s one heck of a party and by the end of it, our Nutty’s attendees are suitably exhausted!
NHC is of course useful for parents; we know that it allows them to go to the office, attend meetings or to work from home without the additional challenge of childcare. But there are of course a plenty of benefits for our young Nutty’s attendees too.
For starters, there is the useful tool of children interacting, playing, chatting and negotiating in a new setting; less formal than school but still a structured environment. Many of them know each other from school but there are plenty of new faces to meet. Simply put, it is another place in which to make friends, learn to play, learn to share and learn to have fun!
Imagination is a key part of all things Nutty’s and this comes into its own in our drama sessions and the children need little prompting. Whether we are devising a short scene or creating a new character, they are always at the ready with plenty of brilliant, fun, inspiring and hilarious ideas! Using imagination is often at the centre of each day so we value and encourage it a great deal at NHC.
A day at NHC also offers children the chance to be physically active, to explore skills within arts and crafts and the opportunity to make new friends (plenty of children have insisted that parents exchange numbers at the end of the day) all with a tonne of laughter thrown in for good measure! What’s not to like?
Oh, and we have amazing fun running it too and cannot wait for our Easter Holiday Club!
If you’re interested in registering your child/children for our Easter Holiday Club, simply drop Danny a line: danny@nuttyschildrensparties.co.uk
