Learning Centers: Family Life

It is here that children work through some of their perceptions of adult roles both within households and those of people who interact with families.

There is emotional satisfaction through the opportunity to express creativity in fantasy, as well as the big job of sorting through reality and distinguishing it from fantasy. Here the child can play through life and death issues and concerns and be assisted by understanding adults.

Social development occurs in this area. Children learn to barter, to share, and to solve problems that deal with the feelings of others. The major teaching of early childhood education social studies is that the family is the basic unit of our society. IT is in this center that some of these understandings are developed.

The family is the basic unit of our society. Here, children can play their way into beginning to understand the roles and relationships within families. Here, creative dramatics and social studies blend together. As children work on understanding these roles and interactions, they also work on the development of their social skills.

In primitive societies, people take on the roles of the gods they fear. In becoming these gods in role play, they feel closer to them while trying to develop empathy and to predict behaviour. In our society, children engage in similar role playing with adult and child relationships in family play. The tradiional family of two parents and their children is no longer the dominant style of households in many communities. The gender roles of the adult have fused, and in many cases, there is just one parent caring for the household. In other cases, there are blended families; and in still others, children visit or stay with one parent and then the other routinely. This permits them to study the roles and interactions.

At the start of each school year, send a newsletter to the parents requesting help with a list of items you may need. Parents enjoy sending in things they no longer need; and it usually is in this way that the Family Center gets furnished. Children love to bring the things their parents send, and it is amazing to see how just one item can bring on a whole new way of working in the family center.

Work in this center is very seriousl for children play our feelings and stuggle with values in their interactions. It is a place where social problems are addressed and where interaction skills are developed. You can watch these relationships and note the social development of the children, both as a group and as individuals.

There are many questions inside young children:

• How does it feel to be a baby?
• If I am a boy, can I ever be a mommy?
• Can girls fix things or drive trucks?

There are experiences to be explored. Here, one can express anger in the role of an adult, as adults do at home. Here one can be younger or older in order to understand those older experiences or to have more time in an earlier age level to deal with issues which are left unresolved.

This center needs to be near both the blocks and the dress up areas. These centers are connected conceptually; and you will see children combine their play in various ways. The role of the adult is to assist in setting th structure up, monitoring the play, but to keep clear of direct involvement. This is the children's own place; and they need their own social dynamics there.