A new program has been developed at Crossroads School that invites students and their caregivers to play together.
According to Crossroads School principal Sharla MacKinnon, the program, titled ‘Come Play with Me,’ saves parents the hassle of cleaning up after playtime and sends them off with a home-cooked meal. The project derived from the work of MacKinnon and Dana George, an Autism Support Worker with the Rainy River District School Board. Additionally, parents and caregivers requested a phone-bin return to the event to encourage them to unplug from their devices.
“Dana and I, back in October, we had talked about how challenging it can be to have young families and busy schedules,” said MacKinnon.
“It’s difficult to also incorporate play within a household.”
Another major contributing factor to the program was an influx of kindergarten students this year.
“Because we have two kindergarten classrooms this year, we thought we had a big opportunity to provide a safe place for our families to come together to play at school where they don’t have to worry about cleaning up, they don’t have to worry about bringing the toys, they just have to worry about carving out one hour in their evening,” said MacKinnon.
“The whole idea is for the kids to come to play with their family,” said MacKinnon. “Even in our first session, and it will be brought by popular demand, we had a draw in place for parents that were able to leave their phones in a bin, in a big bin for the evening, so that they would be allowed to engage and play with their kids.”
However, in the second session, there was no bin for phones. But, the parents and caregivers requested its return.
“For whatever reason, in the second session, we forgot to offer that same service as collecting their phones or having the phone as a ticket to win a store prize,” said MacKinnon.
“In our parent feedback, they requested to bring the bin back.”
Moreover, George explained it was a “highlight to watch parents interact” with their kids actively.
“For me, it’s a highlight to watch parents interact in such an active way with their kids,” said George.
“I love, of course, seeing their kids on a daily basis here in our building. But, it’s not very often that we get to see the parents and the kids interacting together. I think it’s so great that addition to family time, but here at school. We kind of get a little window into how much everybody loves their kids.”
Last, but certainly not least is the meal families are sent home with.
“The first meal we sent home, we cooked chicken and air fries,” said MacKinnon.
“Of course, our meals pass our health and food guidelines. It’s warm, and we put it into a to-go container.”
