How can we support distance learning? Build connection and scaffold learning through play! I’ve been supporting my nieces’ and nephew’s distance learning long distance, and we are building deeper connections and learning important life lessons through play! 

Did you know you can learn flexibility, creativity, and critical thinking with Candy Land? You can when your Tanta (aunt) specializes in play-based learning! Our game boards are different, so we’ve been thinking flexibly about how to adapt. We’re creating dream worlds where houses are made of candy bars, the pool is full of pudding, and gummy bears are our pets. Imaginations are magical! We are also learning strategy. If we take multiple cards each turn, we can explore and explain which card is most advantageous and why. That’s critical thinking in action through play!

Play experiences are the building blocks for learning. Our learning through play with blocks has gone beyond pre-academic goals such as building letter trains to spell our names and position word towers (the block is on top, under, next to, between, etc.) to practice prepositions. Building has been a coping mechanism. When quarantine started, my nephew built a wall around his lego table. For weeks, he has been building cars, planes, boats, and trains that can take him places he cannot actually go in his imagination. When they learned that their schools would not reopen, my niece and nephew built a school of their own with multiple hand-washing stations in every room.

My heart aches and sings at the same time. Helping them learn and heal through play is one of life’s greatest gifts and challenges. I love them to the moon and back again, and as much as I want to take away their pain, the greatest lesson we can learn together is how to feel it to heal it and keep on growing. 

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Rebecca A. Weiner, M.Ed. is an educational consultant specializing in play-based learning, parent and teacher coaching, school consulting, and inclusion support. She loves to help families connect, partners and colleagues communicate, and teams of families, therapists, and schools collaborate to help children of all abilities achieve success.