Learning to play and playing to learn
During the event, children were introduced to the Adventures of the Little 5 featuring Ellie the Elephant Shrew and Friends..
On Friday, May 27 Cotlands – an NPO focused on early childhood development – paid a special visit to the Roodepoort Library in celebration of World Play Day.
As part of the celebration, the little ones from the NPO’s Princess Early Learning Playgroup were entertained with loads of fun play-based activities after which each child was gifted exciting play kits as part of Cotlands’ ‘play-at-home’ initiative launch.
According to Cotlands CEO, Dr Monica Stach this initiative aligns with an important strategic goal – to advocate for young children to access early quality play-based opportunities.
“The initiative includes influencing parents and caregivers to take the time and space to play and learn to improve school readiness. To achieve this goal, we are committed to being a strong advocate for encouraging more play in the home environment. Young children spend most of their time at home, yet they don’t have access to any toys or educational resources,” Monica explained.
This year’s theme for World Play Day is ‘Rediscover Play … Recover Through Play’. As the past few years of the pandemic have been a difficult time for parents and their children, the NPO wants to encourage more families to rediscover different methods of play in the home environment.
While they encouraged children to play at home, they also explored the possibility of a Toy Library being integrated into the Roodepoort Library.
“A lot of libraries have so much potential for a toy library, especially the Roodepoort Library. We believe that it can be a space where parents bring their children to learn and to play. This will also help to influence the children and foster a love for libraries,” Marketing and Communications Manager, Natalie Frank said.
During the event, children were introduced to the Adventures of the Little 5 featuring Ellie the Elephant Shrew and Friends. This is the organisation’s play activity book which encourages children to explore the world around them and develop literacy, maths, social, emotional and cognitive skills with the help of little animal characters.
“We know that many low-income families don’t have the financial means to purchase educational toys for their children, yet ironically this is a space where children spend most of their time. It is our mission to increase children’s access to quality play-based opportunities,” Dr Monica said.
“We are fulfilling our mission through our ‘play-at-home’ initiative, our playgroups, and our toy libraries. We are committed to expanding our network of toy libraries by advocating for the implementation of public libraries to be equipped with toy libraries. We want to create more safe spaces for our children to thrive.”
If you want to donate to the initiative, or if you want to find out more, feel free to visit www.cotlands.org.
