Playgroup? Pre-christmas explosion in activities

The result of a week at playgroup for Felicity! It got to the point I told them to feel free to ration her paper!! These are done with a salad spinner- no fancy equipment here. These ladies are strictly old school playgroup- with a 'painting table' and a 'sticking table' and with kids free to wander where they will. I must admit they do sing a few Jolly phonics songs at the begginning as their lip service to EYFS and I know that a few boxes get ticked behind the scenes but the remainder of the time is spent 'having their hair done by three year old hairdressers (braver women than I) or visiting miniture shop keepers.
It is very interesting-there has been lots of discussion on some of the HE forums about whether or not Playgroup is a good thing for any children OR for children who will be HE. There seems to have been quite a lot of thought that PG is 'spawn of the devil'. Well I have to say that my older two have loved Playgroup- Sebastian went until his vouchers stopped (at which point he was probably ready to finish) and Felicity 'would' be off to school fulltime in Jan- but will instead have another two terms at Playgroup- and they have got a lot out of it- maybe one or two not so desirables- but then they acquire those playing with children at the park sometimes! Tristan is due to start in January- so we will see how that goes. I think one of our sucess elements has been the fact that we have carefully considered how much they do- we have never utilised 'all' of their vouchers just becuase they are 'entitled' to them- playgroup has been an opt in decision.

Anyway other than this we have survived a week of intense pre-Christmas activities- 3 parties, Pantomime, Playgroup, Ballet, Gymnastics & Trampoline, Swimming & shopping- WOW I am meeting myself coming back- my poor socially deprived children!. Would say that I am looking forward to a weekend off-but now I go into four working days (some would say a 'rest!!!). Our seesaw of activities contsntly seems to have big swings in it- we either seem to be rushed off our feet chasing around- or I feel guilty that we aren't 'socialising'- that is entirely my guilt and wanting to outwardly demonstrate that my children aren't socially limited- rather than outside interference- but occasionally I crave a quiet cuddle on the sofa with story books or DVD!