Dear Angie,

As we bid farewell to March, it’s time to embrace a new month filled with new beginnings and fresh opportunities. April marks the arrival of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. It’s a time when the world comes alive with blooming flowers, chirping birds, and a renewed sense of energy. Here’s to a month filled with sunshine, warmth, and good vibes. Welcome, April! 

CENTER HAPPENINGS

WEEK OF THE YOUNG CHILD

The Week of the Young Child (April 6-12, 2024), created by NAEYC, aims to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs. We will be celebrating throughout the week with lots of fun activities so keep an eye on the calendar!

EARTH DAY

This month we will also be celebrating Earth Day. Earth Day is an annual celebration that honors the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect Earth's natural resources for future generations. All ages will be studying the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling throughout the month. All children will be tie dying t-shirts on Thursday, April 18, so please send a plain white t-shirt to school on or before this day. 

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

We will be celebrating our wonderful EFC staff on Thursday, April 11. If you would like to contribute to our staff luncheon on that day, we will have a sign-up sheet on the front desk.

Play, Tap and Go will be here on Thursday, April 4, and Thursday, April 18. 

FAMILY RESOURCES

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First held on April 22, 1970, it now includes a wide range of events coordinated globally by Earthday.org including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries. The official theme for 2024 is “Planet vs Plastics.” 

FAMILY REMINDERS

As we have sent home our heavy outside gear, please remember to send lightweight jackets, closed-toed shoes and a sun hat or sunglasses as needed for kiddos to take outside with them. 

Upcoming days EFC will be closed:

Friday, May 24 for Professional development day  

Monday, May 27 in observance of Memorial Day 

I have a confession to make…I don’t always enjoy playing with my kids. I know that makes me sound like a terrible parent, so let me explain (and try to defend myself a little!). Play is important for kids – more than important, play is essential. Knowing that, I seek out as many opportunities as possible for my kids to play. But when they ask me to play with them, I sometimes bristle. Imaginative play, such as playing make believe, just doesn’t do it for me. I struggle getting into “character” and if I am honest, I find the whole thing just a little dull. Phew, it feels good to confess!

But just because I don’t like a certain type of play doesn’t mean that I write off the importance of play altogether. As much as we have all read the research on the important role play has in early childhood development, we may not be as aware of the fact that play is critical for us as adults too. Even for adults, play has some serious benefits: it encourages creativity, releases endorphins, and improves brain function. Play reduces stress and promotes joy. And we could all use a little less stress and a little more joy.

The good news (for me and hopefully for you) is that there are many different ways to play. So if you, like me, don’t exactly love sitting down to a tea party, rest assured that there are many ways to engage in play with your children that are fun for you and for them. Brené Brown, professor and nationally recognized author, writes that play has three key elements:

1. It’s time spent without purpose
2. It’s something you don’t want to end
3. It leads to a loss of self-consciousness.[1]

By those metrics, there are a myriad of ways that we as adults can embrace play in our lives. Make believe is only one type of play, but (thankfully) there is the rough-and-tumble play of sports, the ritual play of games like chess, the body play of hiking or yoga, and the object play of building legos or making a fort.[2] In all of these types of play we can get lost in the moment with our children and embrace the joy of play as simply that – something done joyfully and without and end in mind. So get out there and find your favorite way to play.

[1] https://www.shortform.com/blog/brene-brown-creativity/

[2] https://wanderlust.com/journal/the-importance-of-play-in-adulthood/

Especially for Children - Circle Pines

2 H South Pine Dr.

Circle Pines, MN 55014

(763) 786-9410

efc12@especiallyforchildren.com

Center Directors

Linda Kottke and Bridget Doyle