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Does this scenario sound familiar? You pick your little one up from school, or maybe you are sitting at the dinner table, and you ask the age-old question, “What did you do in school today?” and the response you get is “played” or “nothing.”  If you want your little one to open up and give you the juicy details, open-ended questions that get them really thinking are the way to go. Here are a few ideas to try ...

A toy not decorated with TV characters or bright colors? No blinking lights? No microchip? Nothing that wiggles or twinkles or giggles? Why would kids want to play with something like that? And yet, they do. They play with blocks. Plain, wooden ones. Many early childhood educators say wooden unit blocks are the one piece of play equipment they wouldn’t do without.

For many children, exploring the Block Area on the second floor is one of the ...

Trains are back at DCM! Open-ended train play presents us with a window into the learning and development that take place during play. Children are learning about sharing, working together, negotiating, and conflict resolution — valuable lessons that help us negotiate the world we live in, as well as problem solving, creativity, imagination, spatial reasoning, fine motor skills, dexterity, and communication skills.

You might think that play is play is play, but if you look at it through the lens of ...