Let Them Be Little: Faithful PLAYcare

Summer PLAY Passes are HERE!! 🎟😎💦🎉🍧 🍉Don't need full time or part time Summer Camp? Then grab a PLAYzy Days of Summer PLAY PASS instead!
We have 1-day, 5-day, and 10-day packages available. Get your child in on the fun this summer where we're going to play like it's the 80's! We're talking NO SCREENS, mud pies, paint, water play... where the only limit is their imagination!
All Ages
CPR/first aid certified
DM me for more info!

Are you thinking about summer camp for your kiddos? Here's a fun way for you and them to try us out first!

Join us for Parent's Night Out on May 16th from 4-8pm. They play, eat dinner, and come home in jammies ready for bed, meanwhile you do whatever is on your bucket list for 4 hours, it's a win/win!

More info here: https://fb.me/e/5OaJUj8yu

Or if you're ready to reserve a spot, get your tickets here:
https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/66TWCFNB7GLUG?fbclid=IwdGRjcARpp9xjbGNrBGmn1mV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHiF2WDq_Kxj2Kpxd0Rmqs_crjRyZeJTGaUt6WxH4uD-fv86f3Sdnu0oqnZPb_aem_Jd-BKpcaQWwKFdjeYkSCDw&brid=YWdncwF7qvyy-XJWaHAatiwUXIAK

Oh my, if you haven't heard of conscious discipline you are missing out! This is an amazing opportunity... this training online costs $550, and it's being offered in Merced for FREE!!! If parents, teachers and daycare operators took this training it would TRANSFORM our community, no joke, it is that powerful of a framework!

Attention parents! Don't miss the Conscious Discipline Training on May 9 🪁

Learn how to handle tantrums and challenging behavior, help your child calm down faster and build a stronger, more connected relationship!

📆: Saturday, May 9
⏰: 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
📍: Hilton Garden Inn
1001 S. Coffee St., Merced, CA

View flyer for more information and register online here 👉
https://app.informedk12.com/link_campaigns/registration-conscious-discpline?token=Y11aamXXmFJo3tJPAWF2vnzD

If you haven't seen my post from yesterday on what child-led play is, go to my page and check it out... this is part two..

WHY is 100% child led play my core value? Again, let's turn to Dr. Peter Gray for a very articulate and educated answer. This video is longer- 16 minutes, but well worth the watch.

Let Them Be Little is NOT just a daycare... NOT just a place to drop your kids when you need to get something else done (although yes, that part is helpful!).

I created Let Them Be Little because, like every other mammal on earth, play is ESSENTIAL to full and proper development. And sadly, the opportunites for REAL play are rapdily declining (we have so many play-like activities that miss the mark). Dr. Gray outlines the devasting consequences of squelching this essential need.

When kids come here they don't have to do anything any certain way, because I understand it is all exploration, all experience and inquiry- I think of them as little scientists! They can decide the paper set out for artwork is better used crumpled up and thrown as a ball in the middle of a game of school. They can decide it is more fun to build a small magnatile tower and knock it down over and over again, rather than to keep building one big one. They can decide to splatter the paint instead of using a paintbrush.

All of these activities and more are so often disallowed by the adults around them because we misunderstand our role and the importance of learning through play. Crumpling paper is seen as "the wrong use of the paper" instead of understanding that the child is working through and understanding something confusing that happened at school earlier. Knocking down a tower is seen as destructive, and the loud noise upsets the nervous system of the adults in the room. But when we shut that activity down we miss the fact that the child is literally studying physics and cause and effect. Choosing to ditch the paintbrush and throwing the paint instead- yes, this has to be in the right place (we were outside), but what we initially fear as messy, is literally a painting method that helped shape the abstract expressionist art movement!

It's hard, but we adults need to loosen the reins a little bit, and Let Them Be Little! They aren't little for long, and this period of discovery through play is literally critical for their survival!!

TEDx Talks 8K likes, 305 comments. "The decline of play | Peter Gray | TEDxNavesink"

What do I mean when I say we are 100% child-led free play? This 5 minute video of one of my heros, Dr. Peter Gray, is a good primer on what play actually is! And when you start to realize that it requires all 4 of these components to deliver the benefits of true play... well, then you realize how little opportunities our children are actually getting for that these days... (More to come on that tomorrow!)

REAL play is:
1. Freely chosen & self-directed (by the child)
2. Intrinsically motived and rewarding (for the child)
3. Structured (by the child or children involved)
4. Imaginative

Play-based Learning with Dr. Peter Gray Dr. Peter Gray, author of “Free to Learn,” defines play and discusses why unleashing the instinct of play makes children happier, more self-reliant, and bett...