Thembi was a wee 3-month old when she attended our birth to 2-year playgroup. At the baby massage classes, Thembi’s mom learned techniques on how to soothe and relax her baby, as well as a variety of baby exercises to promote muscle tone, spatial awareness, growth, and self-awareness. The baby’s sensory development classes helped Thembi bond with her mother and helped her to reach her developmental milestones.
When Thembi was a little older she attended our 2-5-year-old playgroup at an ECD center in Mashishing, Mpumalanga. Thembi’s development was amazing! At 3 years of age, she was able to name all the primary colours and shapes, and sing all of her nursery rhymes that were taught to her and at the age of 4 years, Thembi was able to relay all the stories that were read to her, and name all the secondary colours and mastered building a 50-piece puzzle.
This year Thembi is doing well in all the subjects, she has progressed well thus far and she excels in at school and has been recognised as an outstanding achiever and one of the best learners at the school. We at Cotlands are extremely proud of Thembi’s achievements and are so grateful to our playgroup facilitators and toy librarians for the contributions that they made to Thembi’s learning and development in the early years.
The benefits of our ECD programmes were discovered by her mother who sent her to our playgroup which was far away from where she was staying. Sometimes Thembi travelled with her Gogo and it was heartbreaking to see our little Thembi travelling far distances, especially during the cold seasons, but this was part of her development and becoming the strong little girl that she is today. Building a strong play-based learning foundation at an early age was beneficial for Thembi and gave her the wings to fly in “big school”.