Working parents want to make the most of the time they have with their preschool-age children. However, many may not know just what activities they can do together. Fortunately, there are plenty of things preschoolers find enjoyable.

A good way to start is to spend time outdoors doing unstructured activities. Have a back yard? Take your child outside and rake the leaves. Let your toddler roll on the ground, jump, and even kick the leaves. Have a garden? Dig holes in it and let your toddler marvel at the discoveries he or she makes in the earth. After digging, plant something together. Caring for these plants can be your next project.

If you don't have a backyard, consider taking a walk in a park or a wooded area. Let your child decide where he or she would like to go. Toddlers like to make plenty of stops to collect rocks, smell flowers, play with water, or to throw twigs around. Almost all toddlers love getting dirty. Share their interest when they are taken with something.

If parks are inaccessible, consider creating chalk art on your driveway together. Kids love making a mess. It will be fun, and the first rain will clear the slate for the next art session.

The Toys for Tots Literacy Program has a mission of empowering children from disadvantaged backgrounds with books to help them learn to read, compete academically, and end the cycle of poverty. The National Center for Children in Poverty estimates that over 16 million children in the United States live below the poverty line. According to the Handbook of Early Literacy Research, the ratio of age-appropriate books per child in low-income households is one in 300, and more than 33 percent of all children in fourth grade can barely read.

The Toys for Tots Literacy Program has delivered millions of books to children from disadvantaged backgrounds and the groups supporting them. The organization accepts donations in the form of money as well as new books. All monetary donations go toward buying new books for children.

All young children have the innate ability to make and appreciate music. It is a natural part of the human experience to sing a tune or re-create a rhythm, and this is evident in the musical behaviors of the very young. Studies show that young infants can discriminate pitch, and that early music education plays a key role in building from this natural skill to develop a basic command of music.

Early childhood music education helps children learn to hear and decode musical experiences. This complex process, known as audiation, is essential to a child's ability to sing or play in tune and to move to a beat. It supports not only musical understanding but also the proper development of vocal production, which a child must explore during the preschool years in order to have command over the voice in elementary school and beyond.

At the same time, music helps children develop physical coordination as well as a sense of community. Group music classes give children the opportunity to interact in a meaningful way with others, while also building the emotional intelligence that comes from noticing a song's effect on self or others. Children are able to notice that music can make them calm, happy, excited, or even sad.

Listening to and experiencing music also can help build a child's intellectual capabilities. Experts recommend exposing children to a broad range of genres, though classical is particularly key in developing the neural pathways that can support academic success later in life. Perhaps the most important end result, however, is a lifelong love of music as its own joy.

At City Kids Daycare, dedicated staff work to encourage each child's growth, both individually and as part of the community. City Kids Daycare classrooms incorporate problem solving, cooperation, and other social skills into their child-centered curricula. The process of cooperation can challenge a preschool-age child's developing social skills. Children at this age are still learning to integrate their sense of self with an innate desire to belong to a group, and this dichotomy can create intense feelings when children play together.

The classroom is an ideal place for children to work out their conflicting values of independence and connection. Many preschool games involve a group goal as well as individual tasks for each child to perform, and this duality helps children to understand the concept of individual contributions to the whole. In one such game, the teacher asks the children to make shapes on the floor with their bodies. The teacher may ask them to lie down, stand back to back, or hold hands, so that each child's presence is necessary to form the final whole. This may correlate with an art activity in which each child draws part of a mural or crafts a clay building that becomes part of a whole neighborhood. These sorts of activities encourage children to appreciate and respect the contributions of others, while also valuing their own.

This learning takes place alongside the development of impulse control, listening, and respectful communication, all of which are necessary to create a cooperative atmosphere

City Kids Daycare believes in the healthy and confident growth of each child. By actively incorporating social and emotional learning into a child's day, City Kids Daycare helps each child to know and value him- or herself.

For preschool children, self-esteem means believing in themselves as valuable, capable, and worthwhile members of the community. Feeling accepted by others, children grow to understand that they each have something positive to contribute. This mindset is essential to approaching the world with confidence.

The growth of self-esteem is a complex process, and there is no single fail-safe key to making sure that each child develops this quality. Educators and psychologists do understand, however, that self-esteem cannot grow unless a child knows that his or her parents and teachers provide unconditional love and acceptance. This does not mean that adults can neglect to correct misbehavior; rather, that such corrections should focus on the action while asserting that the child him- or herself is not under attack.

Self-esteem also comes from praise, as long as it is specific. The ubiquitous "good job" is much less effective than noting the particular effort that a child took to string beads, work a puzzle, or help a friend. Parents and teachers can incorporate this praise into each step of a new skill-building process, so that the child feels the accomplishment not only of the skill itself, but of the persistence involved in mastery.

Since 1989 City Kids Daycare has provided families in downtown Columbus and Hilliard, Ohio, with preschool and daycare services that focus on parental involvement and accessibility, offering a number of extra-curricular events designed to bring families together and help them create new memories. Additionally, City Kids Daycare supports numerous charities, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA).

MDA recently came out in support of the drug nusinersen (known by the brand name Spinraza), which received approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in January for the treatment of numerous conditions, including spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Sold by Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Spinraza is currently available to health care providers. The drug was specifically formulated to address specific genetic markers that control the production of the survival motor neuron (SMN) protein.

Spinraza has been shown to increase the body's ability to produce SMN. MDA played a pivotal role in the development of the drug, investing approximately $750,000 into early stage research of the drug's potential benefits. To date, MDA has spent more than $45 million to fund the fight against SMA.

For more than 25 years, City Kids Daycare has served families in Columbus, Ohio, and nearby suburb Hilliard, Ohio. In addition to providing valuable services to children, City Kids Daycare supports the efforts of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital researchers have recently uncovered a protein understood to have a significant impact in preventing cancer development in colon cells. The study, which was recently published in the scientific journal Nature, was conducted by Dr. Thirumala-Devi Kanneganti, who serves in the hospital's Department of Immunology. When the protein, NLRC3, was removed, researchers found that the development of colon cancer increased, proving the theory that NLRC3 plays a crucial role in suppressing tumor growth. While prior studies showed some correlation between colon tumors and the prevalence of NLRC3, this is the first study to show a direct relationship between the two.

Additionally, researchers found molecular components that help NLRC3 fight tumor growth, which could allow scientists to develop new drugs that restore the protein's cancer-fighting capabilities. Dr. Kanneganti commented that there is likely more to be discovered about the role NLRC3 plays in the body and its ability to fight disease, and more research should be undertaken.

At City Kids Daycare in Columbus, Ohio, children participate in age-appropriate activities that help them learn about the world around them. City Kids Daycare promotes diversity and mutual respect as a key component of its educational program. The preschool classroom is an ideal setting for exposing children to cultures and perspectives different from their own, while also helping each child to see himself or herself represented in the broader community. This requires childcare centers to provide play materials and books that incorporate elements from as many world cultures as possible, but it cannot end there.

Young children learn from direct experience, which they then mentally categorize to develop a concept of the world. A child's current worldview is based on what they have lived up until the current moment, and their concrete thinking means that this worldview often translates to sweeping generalization. A child who has never seen a female doctor, for example, may believe that only men enter the medical profession. Early childhood centers can help to expand these simplified worldviews by showing children different options and by confidently asserting that those differences are acceptable. A child who sees a female doctor for the first time may need reassurance that this situation is possible, just as an African American boy may need evidence that others who look like him can go on to become lawyers, accountants, or academics.

Throughout this process, however, the young child must be able to see himself or herself in this broadening world. A classroom that includes Asian children should also feature books about Asian children and dramatic play materials that reflect the reality of an Asian home. Educators who take this proactive approach help each child to understand that his or her world matters, as do the worlds of others.

At City Kids Daycare in Ohio, children learn to care for themselves and others. City Kids Daycare incorporates health and wellness into its daily program so that children understand nutrition and other ways of caring for the body. Early childhood presents a unique opportunity for adults to teach children the importance of healthy eating. This can begin with simple and concrete nutritional guidelines, such as the importance of eating foods with different colors and the need to drink plenty of water. Children internalize this information best when adults present it as a game or a fun activity. By presenting a song about delicious fruits or a game that asks children to identify vegetables, a parent or teacher can build positive connections and promote retention.

Adults can further reinforce these concepts by providing pretend food in dramatic play sets and by reading books about nutrition with the children. Parents and teachers can also build healthy eating habits by keeping nutritious snacks on hand. That way, eating healthy becomes the norm rather than an ideal. Experiential learning projects like juice-making can also make healthy eating come alive for the preschool child, who learns best through concrete experiences.

It is important for adults to reinforce nutrition learning by eating with children and talking about the food available. This presents opportunities for adults to build curiosity about new foods, while modeling enthusiasm for healthy food. Meanwhile, children learn conversation skills and table etiquette that make mealtime not only healthful, but also enjoyable as a social activity.