Hearts & Crafts Workshop Coming Soon!!
Learn Through Play
Hearts & Crafts is our Parent & Me class for families with children ages 1 to 5 and emphasizes the value of cultivating children’s curiosity, creativity, and compassion to nurture their learning and developmental needs. This child-centered workshop provides parents with practical resources and simple strategies to create a rich learning environment at home. We encourage parents to embrace their role as their child's first (and most important) teacher and recognize how positive early learning experiences empower children to become innovative thinkers with a lifelong love for learning.
What to Expect
Each thematic, hour-long session is packed with a range of activities, so that children and their parents can learn together and discover what activities and toys are the best fit for them. The class begins with Create & Play, where parents and children work together to make their own hands-on learning tools to take home, such as play dough, colored rice, or memory cards. There will also be a curated collection of safe, high-quality toys, where children can explore and socialize through free play. We then transition into Music & Movement, a circle time, where we sing and dance, play with instruments and scarves (perhaps a parachute as well), move our bodies, and wake up our brains. This is followed by Explore & Experiment, a child-led time for our young scholars to investigate various Exploration Stations of their choice. These are brain-based, developmentally-appropriate activities designed to challenge young minds. The stations will include an experiment, a craft, and activities using the learning tools we created at the beginning of class. We end each class with Stories & Snacks, where we will make a light snack to enjoy during an interactive story time. If your child has allergies or is a picky eater, you are welcome to bring your own snack to enjoy.
Our goal is to share resources to make it as easy as possible for parents and caregivers to facilitate play-based learning activities at home. Materials parents can expect to bring home after each workshop include:
- Learning tools handmade by you and your child
- A high-quality, lasting craft created by your child
- Song Cards with lyrics to all the songs and chants we used in class
- Activity Guides for the learning stations outlining the developmental goals being addressed and how to modify the skills to support a range of abilities.
- Recipe card for the class snack
- Printable worksheet of felt board pieces and rhymes used during story time
- A follow-up email with links for where to find the books, toys, and learning materials used during the class
- Informational handouts and additional theme-related activities to try at home