The Goddard School®

The Goddard School believes that the basis for healthy learning is providing all children with active, playful lifestyles enriched with good nutrition. From Monday, September 19th through Saturday, September 24th, 2011, Goddard Schools nationwide will host The Goddard School Block Party event in an effort to spread the word to families in their community. Children and their families will engage in a variety of exciting fitness, nutrition and playful learning activities based on the core curriculum and enrichment programs that are an integral part of the FLEX^™ Learning Program offered at The Goddard School.

For the second year in a row, Goddard Systems, Inc. (GSI), franchisor of The Goddard School, is the exclusive preschool sponsor of Play for Tomorrow’s Ultimate Block Party: The Arts and Sciences of Play, a powerful global movement designed to recognize and celebrate the power of play for learning. In addition to The Goddard School Block Party event taking place in our Schools, GSI will participate in the Ultimate Block Party (UBP) on Sunday, October 2nd, at Rash Field in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in downtown Baltimore, MD. The UBP will feature an amazing day of play for families and children, designed to bring playful learning back to the forefront. At the event, GSI and the Baltimore-area Goddard Schools will host the Let’s Play Café. Children will enjoy manipulating play dough, shopping at a pretend farmer’s market and participating in a series of engaging pretend restaurant activities while learning about nutrition, counting, sorting and other important lessons through play.

To gear up for the big celebrations, Sue Adair, Director of Education at GSI, offers five tips for parents to help their children develop healthy learning habits:

• Encourage play. Playing alone and with others not only builds brain development, it also helps children develop social skills and a sense of ethics. The most effective play is free of evaluation and correction (after all, throwing a ball shouldn’t be “right” or “wrong”), while promoting autonomy.

• Play together. In addition to their ABCs and 123s, preschool children are learning and developing life skills that will shape who they grow into as adults.  One of these building blocks is learning to play well with others and accepting one another’s differences.

• Get adequate sleep and proper nutrition. Your child will do their best if they get to sleep early and eat a healthy breakfast each day before school. A daily diet of junk food is not compatible with learning. It can cause listlessness and hyperactivity, which can impair a child’s ability to learn. Skipping breakfast, especially, is a detriment to a child’s education.

• Continue year-long education. Routine provides structure, which is often lacking during the summer months when children all too quickly become detached from the lessons they learned throughout the school year.  Maintaining a schedule throughout the summer supports an environment that is less of a contrast to the classroom and provides a healthy balance between building skills, play and rest.

• Turn off the screens. The American Academy of Pediatrics urges parents to avoid television and other electronic media for children two years of age and younger. Time spent in front of a computer, TV, video game or other similar devices can interfere with schoolwork, physical activity, curious exploration, social interaction and play.

“Play is the natural way to learn. It helps children learn to solve problems, promotes flexibility and motivation, teaches regulation of emotions and builds resilience and confidence,” says Adair. “It is also essential to the development of the child’s brain, forming the basis of healthy cognitive function and mastery of the child’s physical world.”

To learn more about The Goddard School Block Party and The Goddard School, parents are encouraged to visit www.goddardschool.com/blockparty or call 1-800-GODDARD.