Wylie's Smith Public Library, dedicated to offering learning and enrichment opportunities for the community, presents a new program: the SPL Play & Learn Workshops. This five-week program for kids age 0 to 5 and their parents or caregivers is a fun, informal, play-based program that provides a rich environment of toys, books, art activities, puppets, and musical instruments along with helpful child development information for the caregivers. The program meets on Monday nights from 5:45 to 7 p.m. beginning March 18.

In addition to providing creative play activities, a different professional is on hand each week to provide handouts to parents and to be available for questions and discussion during playtime. They are experts on milestones for children 5 and younger and are there to help parents ensure their child is meeting those milestones and offer help if they are not.

The workshops emphasize a different area of child development each week. Topics for the spring program include Early Literacy and General Parenting, March 18; Speech, Hearing and Language Development, March 25; Child Development, April 1; Nutrition, April 8; and Music and Movement, April 15. Each workshop builds on the last, so attendance at all five is strongly encouraged.

The program is made possible by a Family Place Grant from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission, for which Library Director Rachel Orozco applied. The library met the criteria to become an official Family Place Library, which included setting up a specially designed space, outside the Storytime Room, outfitted with Duplo, blocks, puppets and a castle puppet stage, stacking and sorting toys, board books, and infant manipulatives, as well as brochures and books for parents and caregivers. The Family Place area is available whenever the library is open.

There is no charge to participate in the workshops, and registration is underway now via eventbrite.com. Register soon; attendance is limited to 20 families.

For more information, contact the library at 972-516-6250. Smith Public Library is part of the Wylie Municipal Complex, 300 Country Club Rd., Bldg. 300, Wylie.