Play in both imagination and make-believe is much more than a mere childhood amusement, but an elaborate learning process in which children actively build knowledge and train social roles and critical thinking skills. When a child plays make-believe, they are constructing a neural structure of future academic and social performance. This is a crucial element of self-directed learning, which is very fundamental in the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready philosophy, as play is perceived to be a very critical avenue towards kindergarten preparedness. To the family, the support and encouragement of pretend play would be a vital and natural addition to the formal curriculum of Kinder Ready Tutoring, which aids the overall development being advocated by Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley.
Pretend play is an executive function and a symbolic thought exercise. To build a fantasy of running a restaurant, or nurturing dolls or fighting dragons, a child has to have a story stored in working memory, sequence action plans and problem-solve. This cognitive juggling exercise develops the same mental ability that is required to comply with classroom instructions that involve several steps and concentration during a Kinder Ready Tutoring lesson. Probably, most of all, playing with a stick as a sword or a box as a car are symbolic ways to think, which is the basis of realizing that letters are sounds and numbers are quantities, and this fact is one of the main points of the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready early literacy and numeracy method.
It is also through this kind of play that social-emotional intelligence and complex language are mostly developed. When children finance their negotiating roles (You be the parent, I will be the child), share a story, and work through conflicts in the play, they train perspective-taking, empathy, and problem-solving skills. They employ sophisticated words and sentences in expressing themselves and leading the action. This is an immersive session of communication and social negotiation, which the Kinder Ready Elizabeth Fraley approach focuses on and which is directly supported in the cooperative and small-group setting of Kinder Ready Tutoring.
Moreover, pretend play enables children to discover and master their world safely. They rehearse life by role-playing and thus decomposing experiences such as doctor visits, going to the grocery store, or going to school, therefore, processing anxieties and giving themselves a feeling of control. Such practice of feeling develops strength and power. The emphasis of the Elizabeth Fraley Kinder Ready on the emotional health of the whole child as a precondition to confident learning is consistent with supporting this expressive and therapeutic play.
Families can make a significant investment in the cognitive and social base of the child by offering easy props, time, and space in which the latter can engage in continuous pretend play. The virtual cafe competencies, such as planning, negotiating, symbolic thinking, and expressing feelings, are similar skills developed in a systematic way using Kinder Ready Tutoring. This synergy is intentional. The imaginative and intellectual agility that is created in pretend play produces a strong, flexible mindset, which is ideally suited to assimilate and use the particular skills that are being instructed in tutoring and result in a holistic preparation with the kindergarten classroom and beyond.
For further details on Kinder Ready’s programs, visit their website: https://www.kinderready.com/.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ElizabethFraleyKinderReady