Caring for a little one can be the best thing in the world and a little lonely at times. The hours are long, the questions are constant, and it can feel like everyone else got a handbook you never received. If any of that sounds familiar, there is a place made just for you, and it’s completely FREE! Kaleidoscope Play & Learn is a weekly program where caregivers and their children come together to learn and play. Families with children from 3 months to 5 years old gather to sing, read, create, explore, and connect. Registration for the new year opens in late August, and we’d love for your family to be a part of it!
So, what’s it all about?
Walk into a Play & Learn group and you will see puppets, sensory bins, blocks, songs, toys, and books. It looks simple, like your living room, because that’s the point. Play is how young children learn, and every activity is planned with your child’s development in mind.
When toddlers wait for a turn with the legos, they are practicing the social skills that will carry them through school. When preschoolers sort, count, match, and hunt for the letter of the week, they are building the foundations of reading and math. For many children, this is their very first experience being part of a group with other kids their age, with their trusted grow-up right beside them. As Marna Holland, who leads the groups for 3-5 year olds, puts it, “many children have not had the chance to practice these skills with peers until they walk through our doors.”
What a morning looks like
For babies and toddlers, mornings with coordinator Grace Ragaller start with open exploration. Little ones dig into the play kitchen, the train table, sensory activities, puzzles, and books while caregivers settle in and chat. Then everyone comes together for circle time with songs, instruments, puppets, baby dolls, and parachute play. Afterward there is more free play, an art project, and time outside when the weather is nice. In the infant class, caregivers connect over everyday questions of new parenthood while babies explore, and everyone takes home a simple sensory activity or keepsake.
For the preschool groups with Marna, children move through hands-on stations with their caregiver, then gather for a circle time full of songs, stories, puppets, counting, and a letter of the week. The themes and materials change from week to week, so there is always something new to discover, while the routine stays the same.
A year of firsts
Here is the part that stays with the coordinators year after year. Children often arrive shy, timid, maybe even a little scared. They stay close to their grown-up and watch. Then something shifts.
Grace loves watching a toddler who once wandered the edges of the room come running to the rug, singing everyone song and knowing exactly what comes next. In the infant class, babies who start the year immobile are crawling, pulling up, and even walking by spring. And Marna knows the year has come full circle when her preschoolers breeze through activities, announce that they are “easy,” and head off to kindergarten ready to take on the world.
Even caregivers get their own surprises. More than once, Marna has watched a parent’s eyes go wide as their child does something new, followed by the words: “I had no idea they could do that!”
For the grown-ups
Play & Learn is as much for you as it is your child. This is a rare glimmer of unhurried time to focus on your little one without the pull of a to-do list, alongside others just like you.
Caregivers come for their child and leave with something they didn’t expect: friends. They trade advice on sleep, feeding, behavior, and local resources, and they build the kind of community that lasts. Grace, now on her 13th year, still runs into families who met in her classes and are friends to this day. Marna has heard the same from parents years after their children moved on. Some of those kids are even old enough to drive now.
As one parent shared, “My son is more involved and excited about learning and walks around the house saying his ABCs and counting. He is more interactive with his peers and participates in circle time with greater enthusiasm.”
How to join
Kaleidoscope Play & Learn is FREE and open to Buncombe County families with children ages 3 months to 5 years who are not enrolled in licensed child care. Groups run during the school year, and registration opens mid to late August.
Space is limited to one adult per child, so it helps to reach out right when registration opens. To register, email the coordinator for your child’s age group:
Infants and toddlers (ages 3 to 35 months)
Grace Ragaller: grace.ragaller@acsgmail.net
Preschoolers (ages 3 to 5 years olds)
Marna Holland: marna.holland@acsgmail.net
Meet the teachers
Groups meet at welcoming locations across the county, including Lucy S. Herring Elementary and Trinity Episcopal Church for infants and toddlers, and Burton Street Community Center, Leicester Elementary, and Pisgah Elementary for preschoolers. Days and start times vary by site.
Come play, learn, and meet your people. We can’t wait to welcome your family this fall!
