DIY Playgroup

We now know that baby’s brains develop most rapidly in the first 2 years of life. Hence the popularity of baby enrichment classes sprouting up in recent years. However they don’t come cheap. One lesson can easily cost $40. Why don’t you start your own baby playgroup? It costs nothing and is not that hard to do. It may seem a little daunting in the beginning but don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it pretty soon.

My neighbours and I started our first playgroup 8 years ago. Needless to say we have stayed close till now and our children always have ready playmates. It was also useful to have one another to discuss little issues that we had as our kids grew up.

Currently Kate is in a playgroup with 3 other 2012 babies. It is nice to watch how the babies grow and change, and how they learn to interact with one another. Gather a group of similar aged babies or toddlers and you can get started! This is the sequence of our playgroup.


1) Good morning song
2) Sing along
3) Story time
4) Activity
5) Puppet show
6) Free play
7) Pack up song

1) First we start off with a “Good Morning” song. This is to signal to them the session has started and to introduce the names of their friends.

It goes like this:
Good morning, good morning, nice to see your smiling face
G       E     E     F      D      D     C    D   E   F     G     G   G
Good morning, good morning, to you and to you.
G       E     E    F      D     D     C   E    G    G   E
Hello Aly, hello Reine,
D D  D D  D  E   F
Hello Vivi, hello Kate,
E  E   E  E  E  F  G
Good morning, good morning, to you and to you.
G      E     E     F      D    D       C   E   G   G   C

2) We will do a series of songs. It’s good to do songs with actions or sounds. You can find these songs on You Tube.

Old MacDonald had a farm
Incy Wincy Spider
The Wheels on The bus
Row, row, row the boat

Row, row, row our boat..

3) We will read a book to them. We usually get a ‘touchy-feely’ book or one that can be dramatized to grab their attention.

4) We will do an activity. This would depend on the age of the children. It could be taking things out of a ‘magic box’, or craft work like sticking coloured paper, or something more active like rolling a ball to one another. Simple activities will do. Today we are doing finger painting.

Reine’s colourful prints

Aly is concentrating hard on getting a lovely green hand print.

And Kate is making one big mess!

Abstract art, mom…

5) We do a simple puppet show.

That’s so funny…

6) Free play (each mummy brings along a different toy every week).

7) End up with the pack up song (to teach the children that they have to clean up after they play). Tune to “Are you sleeping, are you sleeping, brother John, brother John”

Pack up time, pack up time
Let’s all help, let’s all help
Put the toys away, sort the toys away
Pack up time, pack up time

(Repeat twice or three times until all is packed)

Each mummy can be in charge of a section. You can include a theme for each week. Suitable themes: Food, My body, Colour, Animals, Fruit, Numbers, Shapes, Sea animals, Weather, Vehicles, Pets. Each session usually lasts about 45 minutes. As the babies grow older we can stretch it out to an hour or so.

Sane Tip: It’s really helpful to have a handful of mummy friends with kids of the same age. Sometimes you may think that your child has a really big issue which you are concerned about, but after checking with the rest you realise that the other kids may have it too and there’s nothing to worry about.

Save Tip: Some enrichment classes are worth spending on because we can’t replicate the skill of the teachers. But for starters if you just want your child to learn to interact with other children and you want to do something more beneficial and hands-on with your baby on weekends instead of going to the mall, this is ideal. You can also do toy swaps with each other and if the ages of the kids are a few months apart, you can even pass on items which they will outgrow like the walkers, activity centres, play pen, etc.