About Us

Creating Meaningful Impact for Children and Families

Hello! Our nonprofit organization is called “1,2,3 Come Play With Me!” and it is our mission to use purposeful play to prepare young children for education and life. 

Our nonprofit was founded by myself, Diana Bunger, in 2021. My daughters-in-law, Ashee Bunger and Taylor Bunger, are also a part of it.

Between the three of us, we have many years of teaching experience, as well as degrees in occupational and developmental therapy. With that, and our love of children, we make a pretty good team!

Purposeful Play

Through purposeful play, children get to engage in an enjoyable activity with a parent/caregiver that supports the growth of important skills that children need to thrive at school and in life in general. It offers children the opportunity to develop and practice these skills using fun activities that are planned a certain way to maximize the benefits of play. 

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The Driving Force

We offer a variety of programs within 1,2,3 Come Play With Me!, but one of our main focuses (and actually the driving force behind it) is to help the children who are having trouble functioning on a day-to-day basis. From being teachers ourselves, we are seeing more and more children coming into school that are physically (brain & body) NOT ready to learn. This seems to be due to a child’s incomplete muscle development, sensory processing issues and self-regulation problems. These are the skills that need to be improved before a child is ready to function in a school (or other social) setting. This is now becoming such an increasing issue that we feel children would benefit from purposeful play and specific instruction to help with improvement in these areas. This will help children be able to successfully function in everyday life. 

Now, let us emphasize these types of activities are important for ALL children. Not only those that need extra help developing certain skills. Therefore, children NEED opportunities to play BEFORE they enter into school and this is what “1,2,3 Come Play With Me!” provides! 

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Variety of Activities

You may be wondering what this would look like? Basically it would look like a child PLAYING! Because that is what it is!

Our activities typically involve:

• Big Body Movement- like running or jumping

   

• Fine Motor Movement- using a puzzle or playing with legos (which helps get ready for using pencils and zipping jackets)

   

• Listening for a Purpose- like listening for directions

   

• Looking for a Purpose- this is a foundation for reading

   

• Sensory activities- like digging through a tub of beans/rice or shaving cream play

   

An example of these activities might be the use of a simple puzzle, however, it is not worked in the way one may envision. We always say, “it’s not what you play with, but how you play with it!” 

So, when we have our kids work a puzzle, they may have to dig through a tub of beans to find a puzzle piece and then carry it through an obstacle course that includes many different movements like crawling, rolling, climbing, and sliding. Then, they may push the puzzle piece in a weighted basket down to the puzzle board and then locate the correct placement of the puzzle piece. This activity works their muscles and gives sensory input to the child’s body and brain, which they have to self-regulate. Therefore, helping him/her be better prepared to learn and handle life!  

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So Far and Where We Are

So far, we have started a playgroup with take-home bags, sent our weighted baby dolls and puppy dogs to an elementary school, offered literacy bags to school-aged kids, offered one-on-one development enhancement sessions, launched our Purposeful Play Program for Preschools, and hosted seasonal workshops (water day in the summer/ open play in the winter).

Thus far, we have been able to provide services for our families free of cost or at very little cost (our husbands have told us that we are taking the concept of “non-profit” too seriously, but we really enjoy what we do!) However, we cannot continue to start new programs without help. If we continue to reach only the families that we can serve through our parent/child play groups, we would only be able to help a fraction of the children entering school. But, if we could take our methods and knowledge to daycares and preschools that are already having an impact on children, we could help a much larger number of children in our community. We also have a facebook page where we share play ideas and other information in hopes of reaching more families. 

The Big Picture

Now, our big picture is to have Nana’s House which will be a big house with each room filled with toys for many different types of play (both inside and outside) where therapists can come and work with the kids; where we will continue our programs; where families can come to play. The opportunities would be endless!

We Need Your Support

We are seeking donors and sponsors to continue to bring these programs to our community. We would greatly appreciate any support! See the "Contact/Donate" section to give.