Reply to What should I look for in a Pre-K?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I've been touring a lot of Pre-Ks for my 3.5 year old for next fall. They vary drastically. Some have arts, some teach in Spanish, some are 100% outdoor play, some focus mostly on reading and math (??!). Some have little desks just like an elementary school classroom and some have no desks and tables only for art. I'm having trouble figuring out what my child needs. I've read a lot that early academics are not beneficial. My DD already reads a bit (sounds out words, knows letters/numbers) but I don't want to push it at all and don't see that as a positive. She's very smart, but a bit of a people pleaser. We'd like her to gain confidence and enjoy playing with kids her own age. She's with a nanny now and her 2 younger siblings.

Is anyone up on early child development and can tell me what I should be looking for? I'm specifically not looking for a daycare because we have the nanny and she'll drive her (although I do wish they started at 8am so I could drop her off on my way to work, but every single one starts at 9 am). [/quote]

So you are looking for a half day nursery school?  I AM in early childhood education, have an MA and direct a preschool program.  (full day, so not what you want)  Here's the thing: you want a play based program where the express goals for the school are social/emotional development (which is what you said you want - you want her to gain confidence and enjoy playing with children her age).  Your instincts are right, go with those.

To do that, children have the opportunity to play with blocks, playdough, manipulatives (legos, bristle blocks, magnet tiles, trains, cars, pegs and peg boards, puzzles, etc), dress up/dramatic play, have lots of outside time, dance, paint, color, marker, glue, etc. etc.  What you really want to see is that the children have these opportunities to play freely, make their own choices, and not have to "switch to a new center" every 20 minutes or whatever arbitrary time.  Children should have long periods of time to engage with the materials sothey can follow their train of thought and really play (and get more social pratice) deeply.  Imagine being interrupted every 30 minutes? You'd get nothing done.

So, too, with a child.  When children are forced to move from center to center during the morning (couched as "time for you to leave blocks and go to art so others can have a chance at blocks and you (have to) do art" it simply means that the child and his 2 friends DIDN'T get to do these things: 
-- build that huge thing with blocks,
-- try to roll the balls down the ramp they built, 
--discover it won't do exactly what they want, 
--so make the changes they think you should,
--try the balls again, 
--discover more tweaks need to be made, 
--and do those and then, success! the balls rolled the way they want 
(can you all SEE the math, language, cognitive and social skills inherent with this play?)

And, yes, it means each child won't make an art thing every day, won't be in blocks every day, but over the course of days and weeks and months, most/all children will move between various areas of the room and do those.

and trying to "teach" letters, numbers, etc isn't developmentally appropriate but of course, we write their names on their papers, ask them how to spell them, say each word as we write them, and eventually when they are ready, all children want to be able to write their own names - which starts with just their first letter and then expands to some of their letters, then all of their letters but spread all over the page, and then finally to all letters, in the right order going from left to right (or right to left for a few months then going left to right)  All of that happens between 3 and 5 1/2 years old, the preschool years, before they go to kindergarten.  And nore pre-literacy is done through reading, singing songs, rhyming songs and nursery rhymes, math is done when setting the table for snack, simply using blocks, puzzles, etc.  And so on and so forth.

so look for a truly play based program
and if they have little tables for each child and it looks like a mini elementary school, is is NOT PLAY BASED no matter what it says.  You want a program where children are treated like preschoolers they are, there is plenty of time to be elementary school-ers when they are that. [/quote]

Not the op but just wanted to thank you for taking the time to post this. It really helped things “click” for me about why the unstructured nature is so important - not just the play, but that they really get to be engrossed in the play and not moved between centers. I’m going to ask this question of the play based program we are considering. Thank you again! [/quote]

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