free play

RAVE’s mission is to “build small fields for free play across the state of Washington,” according to Ashley Fosberg, the organization’s vice president of philanthropy and executive director.

Some are focused on free play, while others spend more time on teaching children to learn letters and numbers.

Bokunewicz said higher operational costs including increased wages and more costly goods, combined with increased spending on customer acquisition and retention including and free play, rooms, meals and drinks for customers have not been offset by as significant an increase in consumer spending as the industry hoped for.

“Kids that didn’t have a lot of free play and aren’t tightly anchored in a real community, those are the ones that got swept away.”

Preschool children spend 49% of their time in free play, compared to only 11% in kindergarten.