Posted Mar. 22, 2023

A huge number of kids coming to Discovery Park are in the age range of 4-7. Play is everything, and they can do most activities in the park. But riding the train is always the first “have-to-do” activity.

This is called....
      The Intuitive Stage

You probably haven’t thought of it that way, but I’m sure you can identify with the following thoughts:

“This phase marks the child’s growing ability to conceptualize – to organize his experience. True logic is not yet possible, and the child relies heavily on his intuition, but he is continually attempting to make his intuition correspond more closely to reality. This is the well-known stage of incessant questioning with which parents are so familiar. Questions help the child to correct his intuition and form the basis for future logical operations.

This phase is one of transition – between the world of fantasy and the world of reality, between the world of intuition and the world of logical thinking, and between the world of solitary play and the world of social cooperation and mutual understanding.”
....excerpt from “Design for Play” by Richard Dattner, AIA 1969 page 28

There are so many ways kids at this age are being challenged at Discovery Park. As they race around the maze in a pedal powered go kart, his dad close behind on a big cart, they are at the Daytona 500. Let’s climb a mountain on the maze. I’m a firefighter heading out to save people’s lives. You can see the intensity as they explore. There are no rules, make them up as you go.

That's what good play is all about. No directions, nobody telling you “you can’t do it that way”. It’s pure discovery!