2018 AGM

Fancy some Cake? And learning how to get children to listen to what you say?

Our AGM is tomorrow at Elwood Neighbourhood House and we’d love you to join us. This year we will be providing High Tea and a guest Speaker; the lovely and amazingly over-qualified Laina Mason. She’ll be sharing a sample of her encyclopaedic knowledge about parenting. (All the details are at the bottom of this post).

With a particular focus on bonding through play, Laina is going to share her top tips from nearly 15 years of working with children and families (not to mention 6 years of raising her own rambunctious boys!)

There will be an array of lovely food on offer as well as some bubbles - helping us to celebrate this fun and successful year. The Committee will report back on the Toy Library’s financial status and the events of the last year, as well as the plans for next year. And, as always, there will be an opportunity to join the Committee.

I have espoused before about the benefits of being on the Committee, (read here) and this is a particularly good time to join. We have an exciting year coming up with two epic community events, a ground-breaking Community outreach project, and improvement work for the Toy Library space, experience and signage. The Committee are a truly wonderful bunch and we’re always looking for enthusiastic people to join us. If you’re interested, please drop Simon a line at eltoylib@gmail.com.

Hope to see you tomorrow - and thank you all for your continued support of the Toy Library. Here’s to another year providing exciting, sustainable play for the kids in our community!

Jaime McLennan, Elwood Toy Library Committee Chairperson.

Connecting Through Play:

Exploring Child-Led Play and incorporating an Emotion-Coaching style into everyday parenting

Laina Giselle Mason, LCSW

Laina has been working with children and families for nearly 15 years, in a variety of educational and mental health settings. While currently serving as a Mental Health Clinician within Monash Health’s Early in Life Mental Health Services, Laina originally hails from New York where she worked as a Child and Family Therapist for Astor Services for Children & Families, and subsequently as the Youth Specialist on her region’s Psychiatric Mobile Crisis Team. Prior to her clinical work in mental health, Laina was Associate Director for Dutchess County Healthy Families, a home-visiting program supporting attachment and bonding within pregnant and newly parenting families. During her studies, she served as a teaching assistance in a school for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Laina continues to maintain her clinical and private-practice licensure in the State of New York; she completed her Bachelors in Psychology from Ithaca College and her Masters in Clinical Social Work from the University at Albany.

At present, Laina is enjoying her new Australian life with her partner and their two children. When she’s not working, playing with the kids, or drowning under the umpteenth load of laundry, you can find her training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.