With the start of another school year, officials from the Coleman Center for Families and Children in Petal are gearing up for this year’s Playshop activities.
The Playshops, which offer free enrichment activities for children up to 5 years old, will begin Sept. 4 and will be held from 10 a.m.-11 a.m. every Tuesday in the auditorium at the center, 201 West Central Ave. in Petal.
“We’re always trying to tweak our services and make sure we’re serving and meeting the needs of our families, so we have made a few changes,” center director Dede Smith said. “We made some changes in the layout, as far as how the different areas will be, to make it more accessible, and make it more meaningful and purposeful for children’s play.
“We also have a lot of new resources that have been purchased, specifically through the partnership that we have with (Pearl River Community College’s) Early Childhood Academy. So we’re excited about the layout, and we’re also excited about those new resources.”
The first few weeks of Playshop will focus on two major areas, with the first being adaptive and self-help skills like buttoning shirts and other tasks to teach children to become independent. The second area is social and emotional wellness of the children.
“In our district, we talk about the Big Three, and social and emotional development is one of our Big Three,” Smith said. “So we’re really trying to place a big emphasis on that, even before they get to school age.
“When I talk about social and emotional development, this is when children learn to self-regulate their emotions, and manage themselves so that if they get upset they learn to de-escalate. Those are very important skills to learn at an early age.”
The Playshops also allow parents to meet other parents around the community who they may not have been introduced to otherwise.
The events will be held every Tuesday throughout the school year, with the exception of those weeks in which the center has other special activities like Community Day.
“Whatever we do, we’re not doing it just because it’s fun,” Smith said. “We’re doing it because there’s definitely a rationale behind it to further the children’s development and/or parenting skills.
“But we do that with a lot of fun activities and lots of opportunities between families and one another, and between children and their families. So we’re looking forward to it.”
