ENTERPRISE
Erin Porter has three young children of her own, which you might think would be enough to keep any mother busy.

Erin Porter is leader of the Tots program offered by the Hamlet of Enterprise. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

However, Porter also helps to keep even more young children in Enterprise busy as leader of the hamlet's Tots program.

It's a parent and child drop-in program offered every weekday morning from 10 a.m. to noon at the Enterprise Community Centre.

"I like being around the kids," she said. "I love doing crafts. I mean I love finding stuff to do with my own kids. It's fun and easy to do with all the kids."

"It's a drop-in centre, not a drop-off centre," said Porter, explaining the children must be accompanied by a parent, grandparent, guardian or babysitter.

The program offers crafts, reading circles, dress-up, healthy snacks, singing and dancing, occasional movie days and more.

"We did a craft where they made a car out of a cardboard box," Porter said. "So we had a drive-in movie theatre where we had popcorn and they sat in their cars."

Last year, she even had the children plant a plot at the community garden in Enterprise.

"We went once a week, all of us, and watered it," she said, adding another plot will be planted this summer.

The Tots program is designed for children aged up to about five years and their parents.

Porter said that means at least 10 children, which is roughly about 10 per cent of Enterprise's 100 or so residents.

She said it can be an issue with getting the children and parents out for the program.

"I would love to see it better used," she said. "I don't think it's a lack of programming. I've talked to pretty much everyone in our community who has the potential to come and they like what I've been doing."

Porter has also conducted her own little survey to determine what parents want to see in the program, and she welcomes suggestions.

"I can't expect 10 kids every single day, but in the summertime that will be quite different," she said. "We will get quite a few more out just because it's easier to come out."

One idea to be considered is alternating the program between the morning and the afternoon.

"Not every mom can come out in the morning," Porter said. "Some prefer the afternoon, some prefer the morning. So I would like to alternate, which is something we're going to look at."

All of Enterprise's young children and a parent have attended the Tots program at least once.

"There's always three," Porter quipped with a laugh, referring to her three boys aged two, four and five. "They come with me."

She has been leader of the program for close to two years.

In fact, she first started taking her own children to the Tots program in Enterprise while living in Hay River, before moving to the hamlet.

While the program is for Enterprise children, she said it doesn't mean that other children and their parents can't come out from Hay River.

Offered for free, the Tots program is funded by the Healthy Children's Initiative of the Department of Education, Culture and Employment.

The 31-year-old Porter, who was born in British Columbia but grew up in New Brunswick, has lived in the North for almost four years.

Aside from her part-time job with the Tots program, she is also a mobile hairstylist serving Enterprise and Hay River.

Porter said the Tots program is not a play school that is structured to get children ready for Kindergarten.

"It's more just learning through play, interacting with people," she explained, adding it's also a good way for children and their parents to spend time together.

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