"Play is the real work of the child and is a fundamental right of every child. Through it, children have their best chance of becoming whole, happy adults."
- National Association for the Education of Young Children
In Journeys, we spend a lot of our day playing. Whether building in the block area, performing a show with puppets, digging outside in the sand box, riding bikes, preparing breakfast in home living, weighing and measuring in the math and science center, creating in the art center, reading to a stuffed animal in the book nook, or testing what objects sink or float in the water table, our students are engaged in play all day! Just peeking into our classroom you will see: collaboration, cooperation, negotiation, turn-taking, emotional regulation, problem solving, role-playing, verbal expression, perspective taking, creativity and relationship building. Play is a natural stress reliever and grows our students across every domain socially, emotionally, physically and cognitively.
Play is the work of the child!
I can't wait for you to see our kiddos WORK hard!
How can you encourage play at home?
Provide lots of time for open-ended opportunities for play and exploration.
Turn off devices. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one hour of high-quality programming a day.
Join in! Take a break yourself, and pull out some tape and the numerous Amazon boxes we all have! Build a robot, a pet house, or a treasure box. Make a fort, go for a nature walk, play a game, or build with Legos. With you there to scaffold learning, you are not only growing your child's higher level thinking and problem-solving skills, but are growing an amazing connection with him.
"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.
Play is really the work of childhood."
-Fred Rogers