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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I think of play-based as being an environment offering unstructured, child-directed play time. So in the ideal, lots of outdoor time, lots of centers time where kids can choose what they want to do and are encouraged to work out problems with their peers rather than with adults. Minimal adult intervention.

Bridges definitely has an hour or so a day of outdoor time, which is great, along with some centers time. But even in centers, kids are sometimes pulled out for one-on-one or small group instruction time. (This may also be true of DCPS, not sure.) Bridges also seems to have more time with group lessons/handwriting/journals.

It was a bit more teacher-directed than I would have liked--but thankfully the teacher was great and it worked out for us last year. It definitely has an early literacy component, and so relative to the DCPS-es that I'm familiar with, it seemed more focused on early reading/writing. Not as structured as Appletree, but more structured than other schools I'm familiar with. [/quote]

I agree with this (I'm the original not as play based as I would like poster).  They do center rotations, kids choose among centers, but I find the centers are restricted/chosen - so one center may not be open all the time, or the blocks center only lets you play with this one type of block.  And center rotations are kept short, in our room, which doesn't really allow for extended/creative play.  (I have no idea if other rooms run the same)  And then there is a small group instruction component where there's some direct early literacy instruction (and I assume math...I feel like I should know), which feels unnecessary (but then, my kid learned all her letters and numbers within the first few months, and points out ever letter she ever sees everywhere gleefully, so she clearly doesn't mind...) - but I think that's par for the course these days, when you're expected to start K ready to read if not reading.   So I lament the lack of longer unstructured, truly free choice time, where kids could act out some dramatic play or something.  BUT...my kid never would have done that anyway.  She doesn't always remain engaged in circle time, but left to her own devices, well, she'd do her own thing, and she wouldn't expand, or interact with other kids etc.  That's what happened at our DCPS (a tools of the mind, where it was supposed to have some structure but really felt completely unstructured-  she sort of wandered around, wasn't doing what she should have been etc and some of the other kids descended into chaos - I'm nearly positive it was being implemented really poorly).  So it's probably a set up that benefits her - enough adult direction she doesn't wander, but not so much she fails again - even if it's not my ideal.   And the adults are more hands on, though I find it in a good way - jumping in to redirect as necessary and make sure kids are doing what they're supposed to be doing - no wandering away and looking at books in the corner alone instead of playing out the hospital related activities that were the theme (or whatever tools was supposed to do).   FWIW on community, we didn't really know any of the other parents in our DCPS either.  In fact, we didn't know who most of the kids were.  Here I at least know the kids, I've met some parents (they do group conferences - not in place of individual ones, but as add on, which I find not terribly useful other than to chat with other parents), but we did also get a list of other kids in the room from the teacher so I know their names (though I'd have to send a note via the kid if we wanted to do playdates or invites or something, no contact info).  So it sounds like that's another luck of the draw sort of thing.  But we've not traditionally been recipients of playdate invites, so I've not expected or missed that.  I don't know if it ever occurred to them to do a class list email or something, nor did it occur to me to ask...    That's a bummer about other people's experiences with other teachers, it sounds like there may be some unevenness in the staff (that sounds slightly patronizing or something, sorry, not my intention).[/quote]

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