A Letter from Our Director:

We are a play-based school that also values educational skills. Play-based education is defined by Susan Wallace ((2015). play-based learning. In Wallace, S. (Ed.), A Dictionary of Education.: Oxford University Press.) as, “Primary Schooling Pedagogy in which children learn through play, using these activities to help them to make sense of their world, build social skills and develop the acquisition of specific cognitive skills such as language and numbers. Play-based learning also allows children to experience and learn to cope with challenges and frustrations. It is thought that positive play can improve the child’s potential for wider learning.”

The importance of play-based learning cannot be underestimated. Children use play to explore and practice a wide-variety of skills. We can best describe this through an example of children playing with blocks. Within block play, children are learning math skills as well as practicing social skills and a wide variety of language, reasoning, and gross-motor skills.

These socials skills involve turn-taking, communicating, listening to friends, incorporating new ideas into the play, and handling other types of conversation with peers. These are all part of practice being in a group setting. The play continues during cleanup. As they laugh and talk, they are figuring out where to put each block in the shelf based on shapes, practicing rule following and matching the patterns set up for them. At this time, we see continued use of math skills.

At PlayTogether, children are given the freedom to explore and learn at their own pace.

Nyla Kamlet, L.C.S.W.

Director