I'm sure you should know by now, I'm an advocate for children. As an their advocate, I promote PLAY. Below is an overview on PLAY noting the stages and types of play plus highlighting some of the benefits children receive from play. Play is fundamental to childhood and is critical to a child’s healthy and optimal development. You might think play is play, but you'll see there are different stages of play children progress through–stages that build upon each other—and types of play … [Read more...]
Why Puppet Play is Important
A world of imaginative, open-ended PLAY opens up when your kiddo plays with puppets. Puppet play, a sub-set of pretend play, is a type of PLAY young children are naturally drawn. Like dolls, children have been playing with puppets for a long, long time. For a toy to have that kind of staying power they must be very special. And such is the case with puppets! Puppets engage and entertain children. They have FUN all the while growing and learning in several key areas of development! Puppet … [Read more...]
PlayAbility: The Word for 2017
For me PlayAbility™ has four components: Children, adults, toys and the play environment. Young children inherently 'know' how to play when given the time, materials, space and freedom to play. Dr Lawrence J Cohen said: "The single most important skill that parents can acquire is playing." To facilitate that this year, along with PlayAbility™, I’ll be adding more PLAY-based learning activities parents, grandparents and/or caregivers can use with the kidlets. To help them become more confident … [Read more...]