This activity can help children use play to work on their feelings about when their parents go away.

Materials:

• toy furniture or pictures of furniture from catalogs or magazines
• toy people or figures drawn or cut from magazines or catalogs

Directions:

Talk with the children about the feelings they sometimes have when they have to leave home to come to child care/preschool or when they leave child care/preschool to go home. Some children may not feel upset, and it's okay for children to express that idea, too. Or, children may have two very different feelings about the same thing. Playing about situations that are difficult for children can make feelings more manageable.

Have the children use small toy furniture to set up one model that represents the child-care setting or preschool and another that represents their home. Ask the children to use the toy people to pretend about leaving home for school and returning home at the end of the day.

Help the children think of good ways they can manage when they're upset about people going away and coming back. For example they can pretend about:

• Doing fun things at school or after school
• Saying "good-bye" to a pet before leaving home
• Waving good-bye to parents through a window at school
• Gathering their belongings just before they go home

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