Last night we offered our families a parent workshop in place of our usual monthly parent collaborative meeting. Our guest speaker was Tere Bowen-Irish, OTR/L of
All The Possibilities, Inc. She facilitated a workshop about the importance of play in children's development called "Child's Play - Let’s Play Alone, Next to and Together, Building Creativity, Independence and Intelligence…"
In addition to parent and teacher workshops, Tere has come into our classrooms to teach the children and teachers strategies and activities that promote strength and attention through a wonderful program she created called "Drive Thru Menus."

The Drive Thrus are a series of short, fun and engaging activities that we have now incorporated into our daily routine that really help the children focus. Children will now actually ask to do these activities if they are feeling their bodies are not in control or they need to get out some wiggles before they are ready for group time. They incorporate children's literature as well so they really fit right in with our curriculum. One favorite Drive Thru is candlestick jumping! We put each child's name in place of "Jack" in this nursery rhyme and say "Reagan be nimble, Reagan be quick, Reagan jump over the candlestick!" Then it is Reagan's turn to get up and jump over the "candlestick" (in this case a block) that we have in the middle of the group time rug. They are encouraged to jump with both feet off the ground at the same time, which promotes strength and balance, and the kids are able to get up and move around which helps them with their attention once it is time to begin group time again.
We regularly direct our families to Tere's website,
All The Possibilities, Inc., because each month she posts a free download that has fun daily activities you can do with your child! In addition, Tere has written a fabulous book entitled
Yoga and Me, Come Be a Tree, which is also available on her website.
If you offer parent workshops at your school, I would highly recommend having Tere come speak with your parents. Here is a sample of what we discussed at the workshop last night (quoted from Tere's handouts):
What we know about play…
* Solitary play builds independent work skills necessary for future school work.
* Parallel play allows the child to work next to others without distraction, problem solving independently but taking cues from the environment.
* Cooperative play lays the groundwork towards working with others at any stage of life.
Your role in play…
* Consider yourself a concierge, custodian, tour guide or perhaps a gatekeeper.
* No need to hover and control, but rather take on the role of tutor, facilitator and expander.
*remember, it’s the process, not the product that is important.
* Easy on the praise and protection. Allow your child to fail, re-group, go back and try again. End on a good note, take the opportunity to teach a lesson.
* Encourage risk taking (within limits). Remember only this child had to fall a few times before they walked.
* Ask open ended questions such as “How high do you think it can go?” “Where should we start?” “Why do you think that happened?” “Who do you think at your school would like playing this?” “When should we do this again?” You are stoking the problem solving fire!
* Follow the child’s lead, for once you begin to direct, it is not play anymore.
Thanks to Tere for yet another fun and informative parent workshop!
These are some books about play that Tere recommended to our parents. Click on the book to purchase from Amazon.












