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Here at Charlestown Playhouse in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, we have been playing for 75 years. Educational trends come and go, but the lasting values of "Playschool" were established by founding director Elizabeth Stonorov - known as Miss Betty. She inspired and guided their implementation until her death at age 97 in 2003.
Miss Betty knew and was influenced by child development leaders such as Lawrence Frank and Erik Erikson, who visited Playschool in its early years to observe the children's complex block-building and pretend play. Today our staff and children's families continue to support the children's playful investigation of the indoor and outdoor Playschool world. Our values and practices remain essentially the same, although they have been enriched by recent studies of playful learning, self-regulation, scaffolding, and examples of play-focused approaches such as Reggio Emilia and Tools of the Mind.
Every day, we see how play supports children's development and learning. This happens in many ways, but we especially notice two...