National Playday - a day to celebrate the importance of PLAY!

Wednesday, 7th August is National Playday! We join with our colleagues across the early years sector to celebrate and highlight the importance of play! #Playday2024 #PlayandCulture A big shout out to our colleagues in PlayBoard NI for continuing to fight for children's rights to play and highlight and promote play, and to all our partners and other organisations that work tirelessly in supporting childrens play across the sector.

Play is not just about filling time in between the 'import' things, it is THE IMPORT THING, it is absolutely fundamental to how children learn, build resilience, develop their thinking, socialise and interact, learn to communicate and without play their is no creativity, innovation or new ideas - this all begins with good quality play!

Did you know that children's rights include the child’s right to play? The United Nations convention describes play as a fundamental human right, consistent with Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

As adults, parents and practitioners in the early years, our children need us to get involved in play, to create the times and environments and situations for play, and to take the time, put the phone away and to play with our children; it doesnt need to cost money, and often the free or low cost play experiences are the best! At Colin Sure Start we know that play is so important, and it is central in all the programmes, services and groups that we offer, so if you are not already involved and you live in the Colin area and have a child or children under age 4, give us a call and we can help you get registered and attending our fantastic programmes supporting play!