This past month our friends played a life-size version of the children’s board game, Snail’s Pace Race on the Patio with Ms. Kristen.

Why are “games” and “play” such a vital part of early childhood education? Nothing answers that question better than seeing the range of skills being developed in such fun and practical ways as this.

While we play we are developing social emotional skills–engaging in cooperative play, delegating roles, taking turns, regulating our own emotions, developing self-confidence and laying the groundwork for character development and sportsmanship. This fun and engaging game also increases our attention span as we pay attention to each role of the color cube. One-to-one correspondence is one of the most challenging early math foundations and this is a way to reinforce the concept visually and pragmatically.