Play Packs to Support Families in Essex

Creative Homes / Tea Dance for Little People take a playful approach to helping families identify and overcome challenges in their daily lives. One way they do this is by providing creative Play Packs for Under 5s, inspired by their playful characters. They are then delivered straight to a family’s doorstep - which has helped parents and carers who have run out of basic play resources, are struggling with too much screen time, not enough imaginary/physical play and may be struggling to motivate their family to get outdoors for exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The goal of their playful tools and solutions is to support and add value to the work of family outreach and health workers, who are struggling with positive engagement tools whilst unable to meet with families face to face. Now, Creative Homes / Tea Dance for Little People have teamed up with Parents 1st Essex, to provide Baby Play Packs to the families Parents 1st Essex supports. 

The packs help to build an emotional and physical bond between parents/carers and babies, which is so beneficial in the early stages of a child’s development. The packs contain movement and music sequences to guide mat-based play, and support rest and sleep with equipment that will stimulate and improve a baby’s motor skills and awareness of the world.

Each pack includes:

An original soundtrack to guide parents/carers through a short mat play sequence that encourages you and your baby to spend time playing, singing and moving together. Designed by early years professional movement and music specialists.

A Waterproof Drawstring Bag including:

• Inflatable Ball
• Large lycra material
• Mirror
• Scarves
• Sensory Balls
• Light Up Balloon
• Lavender Bag
• A Musical Movement Guide through the sequence
• Youtube playlist of songs and demos

To make the most of the play packs, staff at Parents 1st Essex will be trained to help families make the most of the resources. Once families have started using the packs, feedback will be gathered to see how they have benefitted them and how they can be used as a tool to support other families in the future.

Melanie Eichhorn-Schurig, CEO of Parents 1st Essex said,

We are delighted to be working with Creative Homes / Tea Dance for Little People. They possess years of experience supporting families to identify and overcome challenges in their daily lives and their innovative approach to supporting families is complementary to the peer support provided by Parent's 1st Essex and our shared vision to give babies the best possible start in life. We are excited to see how the families we work with will benefit from the play packs provided and with this trial, many more families could benefit from these resources.
 

Sally Anne Donaldson, Creative Director Tea Dance for Little People/ Creative Homes said,

We are so proud to be working with Parents 1st to reach new parents with our Pregnancy and Baby packs this Spring. Their extensive work to help new and expectant parents navigate the life-changing experience of becoming a parent goes hand in hand with our ethos of improving family connection through creativity and play. Our play packs provide development toys, practical resources and online guides that not only help the development of your baby but pregnancy, recovery from labour, wellbeing and attachment. We are looking forward to seeing the results of this collaboration and exploring many more ways of working together to reach more families in the future.
 

For more information about Creative Homes / Tea Dance for Little People, visit their website here.