Academic versus Play Based Preschool

[Anonymous]

My son's preschool is play based, and seems to do little academic focused stuff. For the most part, I don't mind because my son is shy and really feels comfortable there. I already put the deposit to sign him up next year; however, I am a bit discouraged because I just found out that next year they still might not work on him writing letters. He is almost 4, and right now he recognizes all his letters, but at home shows little interest in writing letters. Also, I work full-time, so don't have much time to work with him on writing. Luckily he won't be going to kindergarten until 2011, so I should have time to work with him, but I was hoping he would also be doing some of this at preschool. Is this normal for a preschool to not work on writing letters? I am wondering what other academic stuff he might be missing if he went to an academic based preschool instead. Any recommendations?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Absolutely normal for a play based preschool and almost certainly the best environment for a little boy. I highly, highly suggest you read "The Trouble With Boys" and it will answer all your questions about play based vs academic based preschools, how the kids learn, and how children from each compare to each other once they start elementary school.

[Anonymous]

You don't notice it, but playing IS academic for preschoolers. Everything he is doing in the play-based environment is (or should be) getting him ready to write. Playing with clay or playdough is helping develop the muscles needed to grasp a pen/pencil. Painting vertically at an easel is teaching him how to make a "tripod" grasp, needed by around age 5 to hold a pen/pencil. Those who don't work in early childhood don't see how "playing" really is academic for young children.

[Anonymous]

i wouldn't worry about it. you can also see if he's interested in writing at home...my son was so he started doodling letters all over. they don't really need to be taught at school....

[Anonymous]

I disagree. I have tested many children from play based schools for Kindergarten entrance and they fall far behind the children that have been exposed to age appropriate and developmentally appropriate materials. Just like children learn languages best before they are six they learn phonics and pre-reading skills easiest before they are six. It is sad to see a bright child going to tutors because they were not given the information they were ready for. It is also difficult for children coming from many play based schools to focus and develop the atttention to detail they need when they reach Kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Phonics and pre-reading, pre-writing skills are taught in play-based preschools.

[Anonymous]

It's interesting the anonymous tester says what she does because Rebecca Marcon, a developmental psychologist and education researcher at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, says "What we found in our research then and in ongoing studies is that children who were in a play based preschool program showed stronger academic performance in all subject areas measured compared to children who had been in more academically focused or more middle of the road programs." I think mothers should learn to trust their gut in regard to raising their children. I am a 56 year old preschool teacher and have raised three children (one will be receiving her doctorate in education this spring and one is a kindergarten teacher and the other is working with his father in his appraisal business). Kindergarten teachers still teach children to read and write. They are not expected to know how to do both when they get to school. If I lived in a state that required that, I would move.

Children need to be allowed to be children. They need to play by themselves and with others which is something we still need to do as adults. What I see in young children today is a real lack of imagination and creativity which I think is due to such structured environments, television and "educational" toys. Let children play with a box. Let them lie on their backs and look at clouds. One of the most precious gifts we can give them is time to do nothing - not organized sports, dance lessons, tutors for this and tutors for that, and NOT watching tv. The most fun game I played as a child was "stranded on a deserted island". We put walnuts from the tree in the yard in the ground and pretended we were planting potatoes. Nothing was plastic or bought. We used leaves for plates. Everything came from the woods behind our house. We had to use our imaginations! This is where our writers and poets come from. Okay, I'll get off my soapbox. But, parents, please let them be children and play. Work will come soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree. I have tested many children from play based schools for Kindergarten entrance and they fall far behind the children that have been exposed to age appropriate and developmentally appropriate materials. Just like children learn languages best before they are six they learn phonics and pre-reading skills easiest before they are six. It is sad to see a bright child going to tutors because they were not given the information they were ready for. It is also difficult for children coming from many play based schools to focus and develop the atttention to detail they need when they reach Kindergarten.

The problem lies with the academic nature of most K programs in public schools, not the preschool programs. Many kids, esp boys are not ready for it (which is why many parents hold their sons back for a year before K). Nothing you have written is accurate PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree. I have tested many children from play based schools for Kindergarten entrance and they fall far behind the children that have been exposed to age appropriate and developmentally appropriate materials. Just like children learn languages best before they are six they learn phonics and pre-reading skills easiest before they are six. It is sad to see a bright child going to tutors because they were not given the information they were ready for. It is also difficult for children coming from many play based schools to focus and develop the atttention to detail they need when they reach Kindergarten.

Yes, children's brains are wired to easily learn languages during early childhood - but before 8 or 9, not before 6, and through environmental exposure, not through drills or direct instruction. And yes, most children will be picking up pre-reading skills such as rhyming - but through play and exposure to books, not through direct instruction in phonics.

What the research really shows is that children in play-based programs (or playing at home) will develop the attentional, knowledge, and pre-literacy skills they need so that they can soar ahead once they get to formal school. Trying to treat preschoolers like miniature kindergarteners (who are now being treated like mini-first graders) won't give them an edge or a head start - it will just turn them off of learning.

[Anonymous]

To 6:08 - I'm the director of a preschool and I couldn't agree more! Imaginative play is so important in their cognitive and social development. And recent studies have linked imagination in young children with high intellectual development.

The basic materials in every preschool should be sand, water, paints, blocks, dramatic play, clay. Let them create, collaborate, build, and pretend. They are learning more than most people think.

[Anonymous]

Most researchers strongly recommend play-based early childhood education. Do some reading and adjust your expectations and you will find your anxiety subsiding.

[Anonymous]

Academic based preschools are best--for example, Montessori is great.

[Anonymous]

I am 14:25 and do the Kindergarten testing in a private school. We do not drill the children. They learn by using appropriate hands on materials. They get their play based learning at home and at the park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is also difficult for children coming from many play based schools to focus and develop the atttention to detail they need when they reach Kindergarten.

This is utter nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 14:25 and do the Kindergarten testing in a private school. We do not drill the children. They learn by using appropriate hands on materials. They get their play based learning at home and at the park.

You work at a school that does its own testing for incoming kindergartners? Are you talking WPPSI or what?