Blogging about Play

Our new blog went live about a week ago. It's called CreativePlayPlus.com, and it includes all kinds of information about the importance of play in child development. It's written to be an easy-to-read resource for parents, grandparents and child care professionals.

There are many sites that talk about toys and products for children, and there are even more that cover the joys and travails of parenting. Creative Play Plus takes a different approach by focusing on the benefits of play in general. It provides a wealth of practical information and links to articles that give insight into how play shapes children's lives and helps them grow their gray matter.

Much of the content is provided by some terrific people at the Schubert Center for Child Studies at Case Western Reserve University. Believe it or not, right in our own backyard, the folks at the Schubert Center are among the elite when it comes to studying play. We learned about them from Optiem, our interactive agency, and we spent several months drawing up plans for the blog.

Sure, we hope to sell more toys as a result of this new site, but that's secondary. There's really a dearth of good information on play, and parents need to connect the dots between the products they buy and how their children learn. If we are able to help them make better choices for their children, then everyone wins. That's doing it right for the community, and that's part of our purpose at Step2.

Our local NBC affiliate ran a great segment about the new blog. Education reporter Kim Wheeler provided a good overview of the project.