Cute and Clever Playschool and Rosary Hill Nursing Home form a friendship like no other

Cute and Clever Playschool showing the residents their Kindness Flag with Mary Corkery from PIFL.

Cute and Clever Playschool and Rosary Hill Nursing Home form a friendship like no other

by ilovelimerick correspondent Chloe O’Keeffe

This year the staff of Cute and Clever Playschool Lisnagry, decided to be the first playschool to part take in ‘Pay it Forward Limerick’.  Hoping that this would promote kindness both in the playschool and the local community. The staff at Cute and Clever Playschool decided to take their inspiration from the channel four documentary ‘Old People’s Home for 4-Year-Olds’ which has proven to have a significantly positive effect on the wellbeing and attitude of the elderly in nursing homes.

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As part of this project, the Cute and Clever Playschool children made several visits to their local Nursing home, Rosary Hill, in Castleconnell throughout the year. Rosary Hill House is a 22-bedded nursing home in the picturesque village of Castleconnell.

The children’s visits included a Christmas show performed by the children along with festive carols, St Patricks Day parade in the nursing home, fun with Easter lambs where the children and residents together fed and petted the lambs, a trip off site by some of the residents to join the children’s day with a mobile petting farm along with several other music and singing enriched visits where both the young and elderly played and sang side by side creating sheer magic in the Nursing Home. The residents and children have both become very fond of each other and their faces just light up each time they visit.

Paul O’ Connell Cute ‘n’ Clever, Vicki Mc Carthy Rosary Hill Nursing Home, Phil Foley Cute ‘n’ Clever, Marie Therese and Marie Mc Elhinney Limerick Childcare committee, Joanne Gil Cute ‘n’ Clever, Denise McEvoy from Rosary Hill, Laura Mc Carthy Fox and Anne-Marie Murphy from Cute and Clever Playschool.

The children performed their play, “The Story of Christmas” in December. The Children were kitted out in magical festive costumes to help set the mood and of course accompanied by live music provided by one of the parents. Every single person in the room was smiling from ear to ear. The initiative managed to turn a time of year that for so many can be sad and lonely as we grow older, into an electric room bursting with happiness created by the presence of these tiny three and four-year-olds. The foundations of strong bonds between the residents and children were formed that day and both begun to feel comfortable and at home with one another.

Both the staff of the Nursing home and Cute and Clever Playschool were extremely excited to have had the opportunity to take part in this adventure. Striving to create a ripple effect of kindness throughout the local community. It has been an amazing adventure.

Cute and Clever Playschool has been awarded their Kindness flag this year and to celebrate National Nursing Home’s week 2018, they brought the flag to the nursing home to share in the celebrations with music, games, ice-cream and of course, cake. The atmosphere in the day room of Rosary Hill was one filled with both emotion and sheer joy as staff watched the magic unfold before their very eyes.

For more info on Pay it Forward Limerick go here.

For more stories on Pay it Forward go here.