Waynesboro Day Care Center
The only Four Star Child Care Center
in Franklin and Fulton Counties, PA

1801 East Main Street, Waynesboro PA 17268
Telephone 717-762-9711, FAX 717-762-5088

Play time outside in the sun

This page describes just a few of the reasons why play is so important to us, to you, and to your children.

Play is valuable and vital to child development, because it does so many things.

1.  Play gives children the opportunity to discover, be creative, use their imaginations.

2.  Play teaches children how to express negative and positive emotional feelings, and how to develop their personalities and a positive self-image.  Play helps teach children how to identify with and understand another child's situation, feelings, and motives.

3.  Play helps prepare children for adult life by learning how to share, cooperate, negotiate, and compromise, how to play by the rules, and how to solve problems.

4.  Play teaches respect and helps develop social skills.

Play can be simple or complicated, quiet or noisy, structured (as in a game) or unstructured (making a car from a shoe box).  Children should play just for the fun of it.

Play time inside when it rains

The photographs below show portions of the new Charles E. Smallwood Playroom dedicated October 28, 2008.  The money to fund the work was from the estate of Smallwood, a Waynesboro man who died two years ago.  Smallwood, an air traffic controller, was raised in an orphanage.  He served with the U.S. Air Force for 26 years, including during the Vietnam War.  

WDCC staff wanted a sensory room that would increase the children's learning experience and offer sand and water, which is a requirement of state learning standards.  The room features a ball pit, sensory table, library filled with beach books and puzzles, a pirate's boat and cavern to explore, beach games and activities, and a sandy beach loaded with shells, shovels, and pails.

Special thanks to Nevin 'Pap' Frey, who adopted the room as his own, and Anthony Zeigler, whose devotion to the children and the center is insurmountable.  Frey has a daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter at the center.  Zeigler donates his knowledge and talent to the center for several hours every week.  [Text excerpts from an article published in The Record Herald on November 13, 2008.]

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