Suggestions for starting a local playgroup in your area.

[taylorcamel]

Suggestions for starting a local playgroup in your area.

How to get the word out
A free yahoo website for your group
Add it to the playgroups section of the signing time group
Moms groups
Library
Doctors office
Early intervention office
Newspaper- some offer free ads for community service groups
Schools
Contact local interpreters who may be able to put you in contact with families or offer ideas for activities
Print business cards with contact info you can pass out whenever someone asks for info about signing

Where to meet
Homes
Parks
Librarys
Schools -offer to teach school kids some songs in sign in return for using the space
Childcare centers
Churches

What to plan-ACTIVITIES
Meetings can be casual or structured
Let the kids free play or offer planned activities. Usually a combination of both works best.
Plan to spend a lot of time answering “how do you sign” questions. You might want to bring a few signing dictionaries or have a computer with an online dictionary near by to help.
Story time -read a book and sign along with it.
Arts and crafts- signing time coloring pages are great
Songs- start with a few signing time songs and teach the kids how to sign along.
Snack time is fun for the kids and a good way to practice signing. Sign food signs and please, hungry, finished, etc.
Check the activities section of the signing time site for more ideas.

Times and days
You may want to alternate days and times so working families can attend as well as families who can only attend during the day.

Who to invite
Anyone and everyone.
You may want to focus on certain age groups for certain meetings but make everyone feel welcome. All ages and signing abilities benefit from this type of group.

Just do it!!
The best advice is to go for it. Usually people want a group but no one is sure how to start or they worry it will be too much work. Just plan one meeting and see how it goes. Others should step up to help once they see how fun it is.

Record it
Make sure to take pictures and tell everyone about your successful meeting
Write in to the group here and share ideas and activities you try, we love to hear about happy playgroups and you may help someone else get started.
Have fun!

[c01dunlap]

Hi! Kimberly (Ohio Playgroup thread) asked a good question:


I'm just wondering... How many people generally come to these playgroups and how often are the playgroups held?

Kimberly in Lancaster
Carter 11/01
Jacob 4/03
Allison 3/05

Can anyone comment? Are there max and min size limits beyond which the playgroup doesn't really work? (In terms of # of kids, I'd assume.) Thanks!!

[taylorcamel]

Our playgroup meets once a month but some meet every week. The kids enjoy the meetings so I think the schedule just depends on how often the adults want to set it up. If you have lots of adults who want to help then you could certainly meet once a week and have the adults alternate organizing the meetings. That way no one person is doing all the work and getting overwhelmed.
As for size- I think 10 kids is probably the best. If you have lots of very young kids you might want to keep it smaller and if it is all older kids you could have more. If more than 10 kids are regularly showing up and it gets too hectic you can split into several groups and then have big meetings for everyone from time to time. That way you would still have the benefit of smaller groups to make activities easier but you would still have the chance to interact with everyone at large group meetings as well.

[Teresa Jo]

I started a signing playgroup by placing an announcement in my moms group monthly newsletter. I had a mom who came bringing both her children, ages one and three. Unfortunately the 3 year old was not coming to learn, just the 1 tear old. And the mother let the 3 year old run wild in my house. It was awful. I do not allow my son to behave in that manor in my own home let alone in someone else's home. After the first week, I would hide all my sons toys before they came. After the 3rd week, I cancel all future signing playgroups. :( I thought it would be easier than having to tell her she either need to control her child or they were not welcomed. Now, instead of a group, I just meet with one other woman and her daughter.

As a result of my experience, I would definitely recommend rules and guidelines for those people starting new groups.

[Jamie]

I used to belong to a couple of general playgroups when we lived in San Diego. These groups were organized by age, birthdays actually--some infant groups were early birthdays or late birthdays, as the kids got older it would be kids born within a articular year. We usually had 5-15 kids at a gathering depending on where it was held and when in the year it happened to be.

We met at least once a week and would go to parks, playgrounds, library story times, the zoo, beach etc. During the colder months, we'd go to individual houses for play and pot luck/recipe exchanges. Each month someone in the group would create the schedule on a rotating basis. We also had a mom's night out too which was a nice break from the kids.

I've not done play group in several years. It was such a great experience for both my son and me though.

[TrishaShelton]

I'm new to this. My daughter was just diagnosed Autistic and signing is her only way of communicating. How do I find group in my area. St. Charles MO or St louis MO?? Please help me
Thanks
Trisha

[ST! LeeAnn]

You can find a play group by doing a searh and typing in your city or state and seeing what posts pull up for your area.

Starting in March I will have two playgroups going. The First one I started by inviting Mothers I knew that were also using ST in there homes and posted for the group. We met at a local park up until the weather got bad and then we moved it to my home. We do a 10-20 min activity using signs, then free play. Once the playgroup was going strong, I called the West Valley Journal which is a local newspaper. They came to a playgroup and ran an article about it to get the word out to more people in the area. I am also going to see about going a follow up story in the spring when the playgroup returns to the park.

My second playgroup is starting a Jordan Valley Child Development Center next month. My little sister's friend has a daughter that has therapy there and she got one of the therapist and I in touch with one another. They will be adding Signing Time to there lending library and asked me to do a playgroup for them once a month to help reinforce signing. They will provide a room, toys and playground for us to use.
LeeAnn

[c01dunlap]

I'm new to this. My daughter was just diagnosed Autistic and signing is her only way of communicating. How do I find group in my area. St. Charles MO or St louis MO?? Please help me
Thanks
Trisha
Trisha,

Since you mentioned a specific location, I did a quick search and didn't see that anyone started a thread for your area. Soooo.... Go ahead and start a new thread yourself (helps if the title includes the area, such as "Anyone interested in MO, St. Charles or St. Louis area?"). There may well be others that are interested, but too shy to start a thread. People do seem to watch/look for one to "appear".

Good Luck! I've loved ours, and it all started with me asking (on the old site) if anyone from Central Ohio was interested.

- C.

[jewel1]

For those of you who have set up signing playgroups, do you charge a fee?

Thanks,
Jewel

[3Beez]

For those of you who have set up signing playgroups, do you charge a fee?

Thanks,
Jewel

We are still in the works of getting our group started and up in the air is whether or not we should charge a fee. We would meet twice a month and takes small "field trips" when deemed appropriate so we are thinking of charging $25.00 per family (max 3 children) _ 5.00 each additional child which would cover craft supplies, small trips, snacks etc.

I guess its just a personal thing as to whether you want to or not. I just couldn't see coming up with all that stuff on my own and all of the people that are interested in our group did not mind paying a small yearly fee.

[c01dunlap]

We are a casual enough start up group right now that we had not considered doing so. We have everyone bring snacks, and I'd brought toys to share (animals for the 7-9 volumes), and we meet in a location that is free to non-profit groups.

[jewel1]

Does charging for the playgroup effect the use of copyrighted videos?

[becnorris]

If anyone is thinking about starting or already has a Playgroup you should totally check out this site...see link below

http://babysigning.meetup.com/about/

I live in the Seattle area and started a playgroup in my area. I was just on my site and noticed that there are 492 people who have logged on to Meetup.com and are looking for people who have signing playgroups. I used Meetup to help get the word out for my playgroup and have had several new members from my site! My meetup signing group is the second largest baby signing group in North America!!! (Ok so there are only 8 in North America but I'm still proud :p )

This page in particular tells where everyone who is looking for a signing group is from and how many there are in each area! It could really help someone who is just starting a group.

Please contact me if you have any questions or need help with the site since I am already the organizer for the Seattle Area Sign with your Baby group!!

Good Luck!! and Happy Signing
Becky
becnorris@msn.com