Play, Grow, and Glow

Look at our little builders hard at work! Dramatic play helps children explore real-world roles, build language skills, and strengthen social connections. Whether they’re driving, building, or imagining new adventures, play is how young children make sense of the world around them.

“On the job!” Our friends practiced teamwork and imagination while exploring construction play.

As part of the Week of the Young Child, our playgroup celebrated with lots of music, movement, and smiles!

Children explored instruments, made their own rhythms, and enjoyed making joyful noise together. Music isn’t just fun—it supports language development, coordination, and creativity in our youngest learners!

We love seeing our little ones express themselves through sound and movement!

We were so excited to participate in a special read-aloud with author Rick, joined by his dog, Dexter! Rick shared heartwarming stories about his first dog, Sparky, and introduced us to other beloved characters from his books, including Maggie the bunny and Speedy the tortoise. Our students loved listening, asking questions, and making connections to the stories, and we have to admit, Dexter quickly became a favorite!

Our young learners were busy designing and building their own structures using blocks, ramps, and vehicles!

Through hands-on play, children explored cause and effect, experimented with how things move, and worked through challenges as they created their own mini worlds. Whether lining up trucks, building ramps, or imagining construction sites, this type of play supports critical thinking, creativity, and early engineering skills.

We love watching children take the lead, test their ideas, and learn through play every step of the way!

Hard at work building big ideas!

We had a wonderful time at our recent Week of the Young Child Family Event, where families came together for an evening full of creativity, learning, and fun!

Children and caregivers enjoyed a special visit from a guest author, who brought stories to life and inspired a love of reading in our young learners. It was such a meaningful experience to share books and storytelling together as a community.

Families then explored a variety of hands-on craft stations, where children could create, imagine, and express themselves through art. From coloring and designing to building and exploring, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

One of the highlights of the evening was our Self-Portrait Studio, where children created unique artwork representing themselves. These special creations helped build confidence, identity, and self-expression—and we loved seeing each child’s personality shine through!

This event truly captured what we value most—bringing families together, supporting early learning, and creating joyful shared experiences. Thank you to all the families who joined us and made the night so special!

As spring approaches, many parents of young children, especially parents who work remotely, are looking for inexpensive ways to keep their children engaged at home.

We are sharing eleven low tech and lost cost spring activities from a recent article entitled 11 At-Home Spring Activities to Boost Your Child’s Development.

Have a teddy bear picnic

Spring is the perfect season for picnics, and you can have them right in your backyard, on your balcony, or even in your living room. To make yours extra special (and give social and communication skills a boost), have your child bring their teddy bears or other favorite stuffed animals on the picnic. Pack a basket just for the bears with a blanket, napkins, pretend food, and plastic plates and tea cups. You and your child can have fun “talking for” their furry friends and imagining their picnic conversations. When

your picnic is done, have your child (and the bears!) help you clean up.

Create (and send!) flower cards

This notecard activity helps kids practice fine motor and social skills, and it’s a creative way to stay in touch with faraway family and friends. Collect small and delicate wildflowers from your backyard or another outdoor area. Show children how to place the flowers between sheets of paper towels or newspaper and then lay them between heavy books. Give the flowers a few days to dry and flatten out, and then work with your child to glue your pretty dried-flower creations to pieces of folded cardstock. Help your

child write a special message inside one or more of the cards and send them off to grandparents or other loved ones.

Build a rainy-day hideaway

What was more fun than a hideaway or fort when you were little? When April showers put the brakes on backyard play, ask if your children would like to build a special hideaway. Siblings can work together, or you can collaborate with your child. Have the children build a tent by draping old sheets or blankets over furniture. Once they make their tent, they can play in it, eat lunch inside it, or read books together with a flashlight. For extra motor skills practice, ask the children to help you put the tent away at the end of the day. They can help you fold the sheets by finding a corner and bringing it to you.

Have a cloud chat

On a beautiful spring day when the sky is filled with puffy clouds, try this classic activity, a calming and creative way to build communication skills. Go outside with your child and lie on your back together in the grass or sit together on a porch, on a balcony, or near a window where you can see the sky. Take turns describing the different cloud shapes and patterns. Point out the “cloud pictures” you see, and ask your child to describe what they think the clouds look like: “Look. There’s an ice cream

cone! What do you see in the clouds?”

Make water pictures

This outdoor activity is a good choice for the first really dry, warm day of the season. Give your child a plastic bucket of water, a paintbrush, and an old sponge. On a safe paved driveway or wooden fence, let the child paint “disappearing pictures” with the water on the cement or wood. Watch the pictures disappear as the water evaporates. Ask your child why they think the pictures vanished, and talk about what happens when

water evaporates into a gas.

String a flower garland

Make this spring-themed decoration with your child to sharpen fine motor skills. First, help your child cut small flowers out of colored paper and punch a hole in the center of each one. Then, cut some drinking straws into pieces and paint them. When you’ve got all the pieces ready, show your child how to string the flowers and straw/pasta pieces onto a long piece of string. You can show them how to make a simple pattern; flower, straw, flower, straw. When your child is done with the garland, hang it up on your door or inside the house to celebrate spring.

Set up a treasure hunt

Here’s an idea for helping kids exercise their problem-solving skills: Hide “treasures” such as a favorite snack, a bag of crayons, or some stickers in places your child can reach. Draw a map that highlights each area where you want your child to search for treasures. Be sure to make the drawings on your map simple and clear, and celebrate when your child finds all the treasures.

Play a Guess-What Game

This is a fun game for the whole family and a good communication booster for kids. Cut spring-themed pictures from a magazine, draw them, or find some online and print them out. Turn the pictures face down and have one family member choose a picture. The others ask yes or no questions to guess what the photo is: “Is it an animal?” “Does the animal fly?”

“Does it have feathers?” After someone guesses correctly, another person chooses a picture and let the others guess.

Have some photo fun

Get dressed up in your favorite spring outfits, take a new family photo, and print it out or draw it. Then help your child make a picture frame for

your family photo. Cut out two rectangles of stiff paper, a little larger than the picture. On one, cut another rectangle inside that’s a little smaller than the picture. Have your child decorate this part of the “frame” with spring-themed stickers, glitter, flowers, macaroni, or anything else that strikes their fancy. Glue the photo to the large solid rectangle, place the decorated frame over the picture, and glue the edges securely to finish your design.

Finish bathtime with a “tub scrub”

After a long day, a good soak in the tub is relaxing and calming. Add some motor-skills practice at bathtime by asking your child to help you clean the tub after their bath. Give your child a separate sponge or cloth( water only) just for this job and show them how to scrub all the way around the tub. As the water drains out, your child can “scrub” the part of the tub where the water was. When they’re finished, show them how to squeeze the cloth or

sponge really hard, and praise them for being a good helper.

Read together every night

End your days at home together by snuggling up with your child for some shared reading. It’s one of the single most important activities you can do together, not only does it strengthen your child’s communication and language skills, it’s also the perfect way to bond, talk through any tough emotions your child might be having, and end the day on a positive note. Choose some spring-themed books, or select stories that feature

characters struggling with challenges or difficult emotions. Kids might find this type of story especially reassuring at a time of uncertainty and upheaval. Engage your child while you read and ask them questions about the story and the characters’ feelings.

With the tips in this article, and your own creative ideas, you can transform your spring days into a rich and varied learning experience from the comfort of home.

Enjoy exploring and learning together!