Playgroup success!

I promised I would post once I had been to a French playgroup and today was finally the day we made it! Those of you with children on the way (am thinking of 2 in particular!) need to know that there's a big difference between deciding to go somewhere on a certain day and actually getting there! If you manage it, it's quite a big achievement! Today was my 3rd attempt to go to this playgroup, and thankfully all the conditions were favourable: 1. Laila wanted to go; 2. Both children were awake; 3. Neither child was ill; 4. I wasn't too tired; 5. I didn't have anything else more pressing to do; 6. The weather was nice!

The playgroup is run by a department of the council called RPAM (Relais Parents Assistantes Maternelles). An Assistante Maternelle is actually a childminder, and this service's main purpose is match parents up with suitable childminders and help draw up the contracts for childcare etc. They also run playgroups for parents and childminders to come to, to keep them from getting too isolated. Childcare is very different in France to England, the majority of people use childminders, and nurseries are hard to come by (although here in Lannion they seem accessible).

This particular playgroup is held in the Halte Garderie, which is the equivalent of a Creche in England. At a Halte Garderie you can get childcare just for an hour or 2, or the whole day if you need it, but it doesn't need to be a regular arrangement. Well thats how it used to work, but I hear they are changing it. So in one side of the building were the children in the creche, and the room we were in was for the playgroup. Really lovely room with little tables and chairs and great toys for all. The age group is 3 months to 3 years, Max had plenty to play with and safe places to crawl and Laila was well occupied too. It's from 3pm to 5.30pm but you can come and go whenever you please. We got there just before 4pm and there was the lady who runs it, Suzette and one mother and her 15 month old son. We started chatting straight-away, as the mother and I recognised each other, but we never did work out where from! Anyway, she is French but just moved here from Limoges, prior to that last year she was living in Ireland for a good few years with her husband who is Irish. They speak English at home apparently and so their son is being brought up bi-lingual too. It was lovely to have such common ground to talk about. A childminder turned up next with a 10month old baby, well I'm assuming she is a childminder as she seemed rather too old to have such a young baby and she didn't seem particularly maternel. She also wasn't that friendly so we didn't talk much. We sat at the tables and had a quick snacktime, which none of the children wanted to sit for as there were too many exciting toys to be playing with. A bit later on a couple more arrived, another childminder with a little girl, and one mum and her girl we know from Laila's gym class and we like them very much! They were pleased to see us too, and the mum was delighted to get a chance to play with Max as she sees him every week at gym class and doesn't get to play. There was a little room with some soft play equipment we went into for a while and Max got his first go in a ball pool, he loved it! Then we had songtime and storytime and tidied up before going home. All in all, a really nice time was had by all 3 of us. It's a small group and a purpose built room so we weren't running around after our children and worrying what they were up to, it was so nice just to let them play and be able to chat to other mums.
Apparently there is another English mum that normally goes but she wasn't there today, and my English friend is supposed to be coming with me another time too. We must be careful not to start an occupation!