Awesome Quote!

[Country Kids]

"Play is enough. Play is enough. Play is enough. This should be our educational mantra for the first five years." -Janet Lansbury.

Did you hear that? Please, let your child be a CHILD. Childhood is a time to explore. Children need time, space, and material to explore. They have innate curiousity and desire to learn. Don't push. Childhood is not a race.

[Countrygal]

OK, I"m gonna bite. Don't you think they learn more if you take an interest in what they are doing and direct a little? Like, for example water play. It's great and a lot of fun and has definite learning potential. But what fun if you take that water play and add a tornado tube and a little directed play to introduce some scientific concepts! I don't think this is pushing. As you have said, they have an innate curiosity to learn about the world around them!

A couple of my kids get very bored with free play. They need direction and learning and explanations. They are both quite advanced and intelligent. While they do like free play, after a short while it starts breaking down simply because they are bored. They want to take it all a step farther. But lay down outside with them and look at the clouds and discuss the birds and the sky and the wind and the rain and the sun....well, you get the picture....these kids would go on for hours!

And I guess I wonder - at what point is it learning and not play??? Aren't they one and the same? Shouldn't it be FUN to learn and shouldn't we learn through play?

[CountryMommy]

OK, I"m gonna bite. Don't you think they learn more if you take an interest in what they are doing and direct a little? Like, for example water play. It's great and a lot of fun and has definite learning potential. But what fun if you take that water play and add a tornado tube and a little directed play to introduce some scientific concepts! I don't think this is pushing. As you have said, they have an innate curiosity to learn about the world around them!

A couple of my kids get very bored with free play. They need direction and learning and explanations. They are both quite advanced and intelligent. While they do like free play, after a short while it starts breaking down simply because they are bored. They want to take it all a step farther. But lay down outside with them and look at the clouds and discuss the birds and the sky and the wind and the rain and the sun....well, you get the picture....these kids would go on for hours!

And I guess I wonder - at what point is it learning and not play??? Aren't they one and the same? Shouldn't it be FUN to learn and shouldn't we learn through play?

This is exactly my philosophy for early childhood education. Play-based learning.

[Blackcat31]

This is exactly my philosophy for early childhood education. Play-based learning.

Yes!

It is so important to not let those "teachable moments" slip by us!

[Country Kids]

Oh, I totally agree with that kind of teaching/play. Here are some examples though that ladies on this forum have posted about:

Someone's niece goes to a daycare/preschool where she keeps assignments in a 3 ring binder and has TONS of worksheets to do daily.

Headstart or someone along those lines is having 2 year olds doing homework.

Alot of parents push their kids into preschool whether they want to go or not. They want them to have that educational experience.

Our kindergarten right here is more of a first grade so if your child didn't have any type of "preschool" they will be considerably behind.

This is the point I was trying to make. Everything is so education bound that kids really don't know how to play unless there is an adult, some toy that makes noise, or a tv that plays back. I have a niece and her hubby are amazed that their little guy will play for hours with lids I have collected. I have milk lids, applesauce lids, all types and sizes. He will sit for so long just playing with them. He is only a year and is amazed by them. Her husband said one time "Why do we keep buying expensive toys, when he loves stuff like that?" Thats one reason they can't wait for him to come here-I have no battery operated toys and gadgets.

CountryGal, you even posted how your dck's don't know how to play. Is it because they have to much adult directed activities, to much tv, not enough outside time? Not from you but parents? I have water, lots of "kitchen stuff", dirt, bookshelve they use as a "stove", outside along with tons of other things to play with. Chalk, play equipment, balls, fabric cube houses, swingset, etc. Mine play for hours outside and hardly ever ask me for anything. Not that I wouldn't be there to help, guide them. They are just so busy exploring everyday on their level they don't need me for direction.

[CountryMommy]

Are you referring to me when saying my dck's don't know how to play? Because, to my knowledge, I've never said that?

Is there someone else with a similar username on here?

[itlw8]

I whole heartedly agree with the quote. But it does not mean ignore them and let them play. I am always introducing new experiences to their play.

This is one thing I love about mixed age groups, they learn so much by playing will all ages. I have a very creative group but this summer the introduction af a new child to the group has taken creativity to a new level.

Everyone has learned something he pointed out the catapiller in the book does not make a cocoon but a crysalis... and dang it he was right a moth makes a cocoon not a butterfly

[Country Kids]

Are you referring to me when saying my dck's don't know how to play? Because, to my knowledge, I've never said that?

Is there someone else with a similar username on here?

Whoops, my mistake! Meant to say CountryGal-

[daycarediva]

Are you referring to me when saying my dck's don't know how to play? Because, to my knowledge, I've never said that?

Is there someone else with a similar username on here?

I *think* she meant countrygal.




I love the quote! I do a preschool curriculum, for the prek kids, but the rest of the day is play play play. I direct, and use teachable moments to 'maximize' their learning, but play is sooooo underrated nowadays!

[busymomof2]

I have a preschool foundation here (less than an hour) with one weekly craft. The rest of the time is free play (inside & outside). Most of my kids can play for hours and I love to watch them make up their own games and pretend (house, store, restaurant, races, pets, etc). I do have this one dcg who hates to play outside and has crying fits for the TV. I do occassionaly introduce something fun like an obstacle course or passing the ball (teach sharing and taking turns) but 99% of the time is kids learning through their own creativity and imagaination.

[saved4always]

"Play is enough. Play is enough. Play is enough. This should be our educational mantra for the first five years." -Janet Lansbury.

Did you hear that? Please, let your child be a CHILD. Childhood is a time to explore. Children need time, space, and material to explore. They have innate curiousity and desire to learn. Don't push. Childhood is not a race.

I so agree.

I work in a daycare now where I have all toddlers. We are talking all the kids are under 3 yo. The parents looking at the daycare often want to know what the "curriculum" is. We do have a schedule to follow and specific activities we do but the kids really just want to play...."circle" time and manipulatives and and crafts and gross motor look great on the schedule to parents and educators but, in reality, I don't think being in the children's faces trying to direct them to specific learning activities that I chose all day long or making them follow a specific schedule makes them do any better in school or later in life. Plus, getting an 18 month old to ignore everything else in the room and listen to a story can give you a migraine. I do my best, of course, to do all our daycare says we do. I put some learning in all we do, especially when something gets their interest and I get their attention. But, in my many years of childcare and as a parent, I have found that what these little ones really need is love, attention and the tools to learn through thier play at their own pace.

[saved4always]

OK, I"m gonna bite. Don't you think they learn more if you take an interest in what they are doing and direct a little? Like, for example water play. It's great and a lot of fun and has definite learning potential. But what fun if you take that water play and add a tornado tube and a little directed play to introduce some scientific concepts! I don't think this is pushing. As you have said, they have an innate curiosity to learn about the world around them!

A couple of my kids get very bored with free play. They need direction and learning and explanations. They are both quite advanced and intelligent. While they do like free play, after a short while it starts breaking down simply because they are bored. They want to take it all a step farther. But lay down outside with them and look at the clouds and discuss the birds and the sky and the wind and the rain and the sun....well, you get the picture....these kids would go on for hours!

And I guess I wonder - at what point is it learning and not play??? Aren't they one and the same? Shouldn't it be FUN to learn and shouldn't we learn through play?

Definitely, this is true...they learn through thier play for sure and do need to have some direction or the water table would be done in 2 seconds. I get in there with them and do it, too, and I talk to my kids about what they are doing constantly. Since mine are so young, many are just learning language skills so I name things constantly and talk about everything they are doing whether it is a puzzle, blocks, the water table, etc. I sometimes think they wish I would just be quiet and let them play...!

[Meeko]

"I never teach my pupils.

I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn"

*Albert Einstein*

[saved4always]

"I never teach my pupils.

I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn"

*Albert Einstein*

I like that one, too!

[Blackcat31]

“Play is the highest form of research.” ~ Albert Einstein