04 Feb 2015

As a new year begins, the stress of modern day motherhood, and ever changing child minders is every mother’s nightmare. To every new mommy and working parents their cry is finally over.

In the heart of Gaborone lies an elegant, modern and yet sophisticated Kids Guesthouse. Jouerhall Kids aftercare and guesthouse is the first of its kind in Botswana to offer accommodation and services of its type.

Jouerhall which means play in French, is the brainchild of Pearl Kgosimang, a teacher by profession and a mother of two. Kgosimang mentions that being a teacher, she saw the gap in the education system as it mostly focus in academic skills rather than practical and life skills that children need from an early age.

Another reason, she mentioned is that “As mothers we tend to leave our children with strangers, exposing the child to an unfamiliar environment”, she says.Also she made an observation that in modern parenting, parents usually take their toddlers to Pre-school at a young age.

She said that it is not advisable to take a child that age to school, therefore the guest house is an ideal place for one to take their children to be taught motto-skills so they may not miss any stage of development.

“We create a homely environment for children, from four months to children who are at lower primary, but on weekend we also host teenagers”, she added.

In addition, the guest house offers an after school care programme, this is because they realised that children usually come early from school, and to curb juvenile delinquency.Provide lunch in hotel manner to teach them table manners, thereafter they do monitoring and supervision of homework. They also provide laundry services for kids, which includes washing of the children’s uniforms.

Further, if one has errands to run on a weekend and the baby sitter is nowhere to be found, the guest house is a place to take your child, also on school holidays for an enjoyable and high energy experience. Children also learn sign language, swimming lessons, cooking classes where they are taught about food and healthy living from an early age.

She added that, as Jouerhall they provide a range of creative kid’s services, and a variety of fun educational programmes, as well as Fun Science where they use non-toxic kitchen ingredients to make scientific experiments.

“As a teacher by profession, I have seen that our children have difficulties in Science subjects, so starting them from grass root level can improve this situation”, mentioned Kgosimang. She added that on average she receives about close to a maximum of fifteen toddlers from the age of four months to three years, and children from standard one to seven. ENDS