10 Things Every Parent Should Know about Play by Laurel Bongiorno (click for full article)
Children learn through their play.
Don’t underestimate the value of play. Children learn and develop:
- cognitive skills – like math and problem solving in a pretend grocery store
- physical abilities – like balancing blocks and running on the playground
- new vocabulary – like the words they need to play with toy dinosaurs
- social skills – like playing together in a pretend car wash
- literacy skills – like creating a menu for a pretend restaurant