Play is a powerful tool for children. At Celebree School of Stafford, we intentionally promote play to strengthen social skills and create academic advantages that support lifelong learning. Through play, children make sense of their world as they learn, experiment, and explore in meaningful ways.
When children are encouraged to test ideas and engage in creative experiences, they build essential skills that support cognitive growth, communication, creativity, physical coordination, and overall school readiness.
The Social Advantage:
• Pretend play develops emotional intelligence by allowing children to practice empathy and emotional regulation.
• Free play reduces disruptive behavior by giving children opportunities to self-regulate, negotiate, and solve problems independently.
• Interactive play builds strong relationships while developing cooperation and communication skills.
The Academic Advantage:
• Play-based learning supports vocabulary development and improves word usage and retention.
• Symbolic play lays the foundation for reading by helping children understand how symbols represent ideas.
• Quality teacher-child interactions during play foster complex language skills and are linked to higher literacy outcomes in later grades.
Every moment of play is a moment of growth, connection, and discovery.
