 | Why is Pretend City Needed?
Forty years ago, there wasn't a need for a children's museum in Orange County. That's because Orange County was a children's museum. It was a hands-on and participatory place to live. Children picked lemons from nearby trees and made lemonade. On tractors, they rode side-by-side with relatives to reap the harvest. Ice cream was made by churning cream and sugar together for many hours. Farmer's Markets helped children learned about the cycle of food. The random tumbleweed became a fort. LIFE itself was a children's museum.
While, in many ways, our lifestyle has vastly improved, children no longer have the opportunity to freely experience those things that helped past generations to develop curiosity, understand process, build leadership and negotiation skills, develop a sense of adventure, and build creativity.
Instead of participating in life, many children today experience the world vicariously by watching TV and playing video games, while others are tightly scheduled into structured activities.
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Research has proven time and time again that the brain's greatest growth spurt is in the first ten years of life. After that point, the brain will never again be able to master new skills so readily or rebound from setback so easily.
Research also tells us that early whole body learning experiences are critical to the lifelong learning continuum, because it sets either a sturdy or fragile base for what follows. "
While heredity is responsible for the brain's basic wiring, experiences change the brain's actual structure. Brain development is "activity-dependent," meaning that neurons and synapses must be stimulated through environmental experiences.
Building better brains is the reason Pretend City will be built. During the critical first years of life, Pretend City will be the place where Orange County families can take their children to increase their "brain power" and develop essential foundational skills.
Grounded in well-established teaching, Pretend City will combine specific learning objectives with meaningful play in an informal learning environment that is developmentally appropriate for infants, toddlers and young children.
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