Science shows that 80% of brain growth happens by the age of 3. With this vital fact in mind, Let’s Play! A Place for Families incorporates the concepts of the national program, The Basics, into its Tuesday morning early childhood playgroup. These concepts include talking, singing, and pointing with children, counting, grouping and comparing objects, and exploring through movement and play. Starting in 2019, Kids’ Club has supported Let’s Play! with a grant to help roll out and sustain this program that offers bilingual instruction in these important early academic areas to underserved families in our community.
Our visit this week to the Tarrytown United Methodist Church where Let’s Play! is housed showed families of all backgrounds working together to strengthen the verbal and mathematic skills that will become the foundation for later success in school. The learning took place during playtime, arts and crafts, circle time reading, snack, movement and singing. Children and their care-givers, along with Let’s Play! instructors and social worker, were all engaged with stimulating activities and interactions that have been proven to support development of cognitive skills in children, as well as their social and emotional skills.