Today I took my children to see a Play School concert. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or them. I suspect me.
Play School has been on Australian television for...I don't know, EVER. I grew up with a steady diet of Noni Hazlehurt, John Waters, Benita Collings, et al. Check out the previous presenter and a bit of the history on the ever reliable (??) Wikipiedia here. I can remember not being so keen on it as I grew out of my infant years and having to watch it with my younger brother. Obviously I was too cool to make the stuff with paper, pipe cleaners, cellophane and the like. Now that I am much older and have children of my own, I LOVE IT! They come up with such cool ideas for making stuff. The sets are colourful, but still have the 'home-madey' feel about them. They read a story and tell the time every single show - terrific for children's learning - and they are always dropping in interesting facts about animals or nature. My four year old loves it, and is especially excited by the new episodes.
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Luke Caroll |
Play School makes sure it has a good cultural and diverse mix of presenters. There is Karen, who has a Chinese background, Jay Lagia, an Islander, Leah who looks of Indian background and has a Dutch surname, there is Sofia who is deaf, and there is an Indigenous man who presents quite often (I believe his name is Luke?). The presenters are also a mix of tried and true oldies, Andrew and Georgie, and some young up and comings, Teo and Brooke. Some of the presenters are better than others, and we all have our favourites.
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Alex Paps and Abi Tucker |
Anyway, I saw an advertisement in a magazine a few months ago for Play School concerts. I immediately rushed home to book and managed to get 4 tickets for a show in Ivanhoe. I had spoken to a good friend who also loves Play School and has two kids, and we were set. We discussed the concert at length. Who would be presenting? Who did we want? Who didn't we want!? I told my four year old who began a count down to the show. My friend elected not to tell her little boy, he is a bit younger and doesn't really have the concept of delayed gratification yet. Anyway, finally the big day arrived, TODAY!
We all prepared a picnic lunch and set off nice and early. Apparently there was a chance that the performers would come out to meet the kids before or after the show! We also wanted to get good seats....it is just a general admission gig and I knew that there would be some serious groupies there pushing for the front. Anyway, we arrived. There was a good mix of people there, bogans, middle class, older parents, younger parents, children from every cultural background imaginable. It just goes to show that Play School bridges all divides
There he is, Jay, right in front of us! |
I had talked down the presenters to my daughter. She really wanted
Justine and Jay...but I was pretty sure that those two would be off
doing their own tour. I knew I really didn't want Brooke Satchwell (I
find her performances a bit wooden). My friend didn't want Leah, I
wanted Georgie...the list went on. When we walked into the foyer before
the show there was a smell of dirty nappies, the children were crazed
and excited. It was hot and when we peeked into the hall...there were
hardly any seats. It was an on the floor event.
None of this
mattered. We were at Play School.
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Humpty and Jemima (we got a Jemima in orange overalls) |
Once it was all over we diligently queued up to buy the kids a toy. My daughter chose a big Humpty, and I got a big Jemima for my 11 month old son. Clearly the tickets didn't need to be expensive...we all bumped up the profits on soft toy sales.
I am home now, and my baby has fallen asleep (he was so tired). My daughter has had a little rest with Humpty in Mum's bed and I could curl up for 40 winks too given half a chance. What a great day.
If Play School is having a concert near you, I couldn't recommend it highly enough.
Thank you Jay, thank you Abi, thank you ABC!
Love Play School! Humpty is my favourite too.
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