For me "play-based" is not all play all day long. But for me it does mean that they don't send a worksheet home with my child.
My friend's child was sent home from CH Appletree with Venn diagram worksheet. Just googled them - "Our highly academic and celebrated pre-k program" came up.
She did the Venn diagram for him, but I still wonder how the heck did they get hold of that worksheet. Must be the "highly academic" part.
The kid turned out fine, loved going to AT and loves his new school too.
Mine went to "play-based" pre-school. Both are good kids, one loves math, the other loves to read. not once did we think we need to change their schools because one was too academic and the other was too much play. Though I still wonder if the Venn diagram was a joke.

I think people are misunderstanding what is meant by "play" in this context. It doesn't mean they let the kids loose to just do whatever they want all day, like they do at recess. It is used more to distinguish between a program that has you draw a page of "A"s, then circle all the capital and small As on a sheet, or circle pictures of items that start with the A sound, then move on to working through addition problems, etc. it is not a new term---my 18 year old went to a play-based preschool back in her day. She also loved doing workbooks at home, so I didn't need her to do more of that kind of thing at school. The important thing is that the kids think they are "playing" all day at school, whereas in reality, the teachers are encouraging specific activities that have set goals of what the kids are supposed to learn from them. So yes, there will be some activities they have to do that they don't particularly want to do, but there will be other activities with much more freedom. At our preschool, there were dress up clothes in one area, blocks in another, puzzles in another, a water table and/or sand table, cars and trucks, an easel with paint, etc. They would have some blocks of time that they could choose to play with whatever they wanted (and had to learn to wait their turn if someone else was already using those items) and other times they would do a teacher-directed activity like a craft project or story time. Play-based doesn't mean all play, all the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

I actually disagree. My son is at a preschool with no staff with ECE credentials, and it is SO MUCH better in every way than the preschool that had credentialed staff. In a best case scenario, long-time childcare workers without degrees are just good with kids (and, more importantly, managing classrooms competently.) On the other hand, an indexperienced but credentialed teacher can be a nightmare. And pushing "academics" at least means that the staff is engaged with the kids, as opposed to letting them go all lord of the flies.

It's pretty hard to be credentialed without supervised exporsure to children--it's required as part of the certification.

Play-based does not mean free-for-all. It means that children learn skills to prepare them for academics through play. The best preparation for academic success when you are talking about the 7-and under set means the ability to follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills (which are correlated with gross motor skills). A teacher who demands that a three year old sit still and write on a sheet of paper is not developing the whole child. Child psychologists observe that children who participate in dramatic play, in particular, are able to develop executive functioning skills compared to children who do not.

Trust me, the level of exposure to kids required to work in DCPS schools is really minimal. Any single one of the daycare ladies at our daycare had more experience than the collective ECE staff at our highly regarded DCPS.

Also, nothing of what you describe there sounds like "play." Please explain, in detail, how you teach a room of 16 3 year olds to "follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills" through play.

Here's one example

Re-creating "real-life" situations: restaurant, grocery store, auto repair shop, teacher-student, doctor, vet. The teacher asks questions to get the students organized as a group (e.g., what furniture does a restaurant have? Who are the people who work at a restaurant? What kind of food should the restaurant serve? etc., etc.), gets props ready, helps the students to get in character, observes, etc. There is a lot of following directions, staying focused (in one's role), exchanging ideas, conversation, writing (e.g., the menu, the check, etc.), and math (how much should we charge? how much does one drink and one pizza cost?)

At our school, the students actually served the parents in their "restaurant" at the end of the semester. For the kids, it was directed play, not chaos, and it was a far, far better way to incorporate the skills required for school than rote worksheets which are meaningless for children this age. Children need a context for their learning.

For the kids, this was wonderful pretend play, but as you can see, there are a lot of

That scenario doesn't sound like "play" at all. It sounds like a teacher directing a very specific, rather rigid, group activity that some kids might like, and some might not. My kid at 3 would have not found that to be "play." Playing would have been having a goofy conversation with a teacher, being swung upside down, or playing "chase."

There's plenty of conversations with teachers, swinging on the playground, and playing "chase" outdoors. As you well know, the children aren't playing restaurant all day long. They do this for maybe 20 minutes a day, followed by some other activity

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that if a kid comes from a family where any parent even bothers to think about the distinction of play-based preschool vs. academic preschool, then she will do just fine in either one, or she will do just fine with no preschool at all.

It just doesn't matter, people.

+1000

I agree that it probably doesn't matter for long term. But for some of us, we do want to make sure our littles are not completely miserable in preschools that don't suit their personalities. Some of that has to do with play v academics v structure, and the level and type of adult interaction that is considered appropriate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

I actually disagree. My son is at a preschool with no staff with ECE credentials, and it is SO MUCH better in every way than the preschool that had credentialed staff. In a best case scenario, long-time childcare workers without degrees are just good with kids (and, more importantly, managing classrooms competently.) On the other hand, an indexperienced but credentialed teacher can be a nightmare. And pushing "academics" at least means that the staff is engaged with the kids, as opposed to letting them go all lord of the flies.

It's pretty hard to be credentialed without supervised exporsure to children--it's required as part of the certification.

Play-based does not mean free-for-all. It means that children learn skills to prepare them for academics through play. The best preparation for academic success when you are talking about the 7-and under set means the ability to follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills (which are correlated with gross motor skills). A teacher who demands that a three year old sit still and write on a sheet of paper is not developing the whole child. Child psychologists observe that children who participate in dramatic play, in particular, are able to develop executive functioning skills compared to children who do not.

Trust me, the level of exposure to kids required to work in DCPS schools is really minimal. Any single one of the daycare ladies at our daycare had more experience than the collective ECE staff at our highly regarded DCPS.

Also, nothing of what you describe there sounds like "play." Please explain, in detail, how you teach a room of 16 3 year olds to "follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills" through play.

Here's one example

Re-creating "real-life" situations: restaurant, grocery store, auto repair shop, teacher-student, doctor, vet. The teacher asks questions to get the students organized as a group (e.g., what furniture does a restaurant have? Who are the people who work at a restaurant? What kind of food should the restaurant serve? etc., etc.), gets props ready, helps the students to get in character, observes, etc. There is a lot of following directions, staying focused (in one's role), exchanging ideas, conversation, writing (e.g., the menu, the check, etc.), and math (how much should we charge? how much does one drink and one pizza cost?)

At our school, the students actually served the parents in their "restaurant" at the end of the semester. For the kids, it was directed play, not chaos, and it was a far, far better way to incorporate the skills required for school than rote worksheets which are meaningless for children this age. Children need a context for their learning.

For the kids, this was wonderful pretend play, but as you can see, there are a lot of

That scenario doesn't sound like "play" at all. It sounds like a teacher directing a very specific, rather rigid, group activity that some kids might like, and some might not. My kid at 3 would have not found that to be "play." Playing would have been having a goofy conversation with a teacher, being swung upside down, or playing "chase."

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that if a kid comes from a family where any parent even bothers to think about the distinction of play-based preschool vs. academic preschool, then she will do just fine in either one, or she will do just fine with no preschool at all.

It just doesn't matter, people.

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

I actually disagree. My son is at a preschool with no staff with ECE credentials, and it is SO MUCH better in every way than the preschool that had credentialed staff. In a best case scenario, long-time childcare workers without degrees are just good with kids (and, more importantly, managing classrooms competently.) On the other hand, an indexperienced but credentialed teacher can be a nightmare. And pushing "academics" at least means that the staff is engaged with the kids, as opposed to letting them go all lord of the flies.

It's pretty hard to be credentialed without supervised exporsure to children--it's required as part of the certification.

Play-based does not mean free-for-all. It means that children learn skills to prepare them for academics through play. The best preparation for academic success when you are talking about the 7-and under set means the ability to follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills (which are correlated with gross motor skills). A teacher who demands that a three year old sit still and write on a sheet of paper is not developing the whole child. Child psychologists observe that children who participate in dramatic play, in particular, are able to develop executive functioning skills compared to children who do not.

Trust me, the level of exposure to kids required to work in DCPS schools is really minimal. Any single one of the daycare ladies at our daycare had more experience than the collective ECE staff at our highly regarded DCPS.

Also, nothing of what you describe there sounds like "play." Please explain, in detail, how you teach a room of 16 3 year olds to "follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills" through play.

Here's one example

Re-creating "real-life" situations: restaurant, grocery store, auto repair shop, teacher-student, doctor, vet. The teacher asks questions to get the students organized as a group (e.g., what furniture does a restaurant have? Who are the people who work at a restaurant? What kind of food should the restaurant serve? etc., etc.), gets props ready, helps the students to get in character, observes, etc. There is a lot of following directions, staying focused (in one's role), exchanging ideas, conversation, writing (e.g., the menu, the check, etc.), and math (how much should we charge? how much does one drink and one pizza cost?)

At our school, the students actually served the parents in their "restaurant" at the end of the semester. For the kids, it was directed play, not chaos, and it was a far, far better way to incorporate the skills required for school than rote worksheets which are meaningless for children this age. Children need a context for their learning.

For the kids, this was wonderful pretend play, but as you can see, there are a lot of

Yes, but are the teachers really that engaged in the children's play when no other adults are around?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

I actually disagree. My son is at a preschool with no staff with ECE credentials, and it is SO MUCH better in every way than the preschool that had credentialed staff. In a best case scenario, long-time childcare workers without degrees are just good with kids (and, more importantly, managing classrooms competently.) On the other hand, an indexperienced but credentialed teacher can be a nightmare. And pushing "academics" at least means that the staff is engaged with the kids, as opposed to letting them go all lord of the flies.

Of course, it is not 100% one way or the other. Our experience with "academic" preschool was not engagement, more of pushing worksheets and not developing curiosity or learning skills, but drilling children specific assigned tasks, that seemed very inappropriate for preschoolers. We are in a play-based preschool now with staff mostly with no ECE credentials and it is fantastic.

Was it the worksheets themselves that you consider very inappropriate, or what they were asked to do on the worksheet that wasn't appropriate for pre-schoolers? I really don't get the hysteria over having 4 year olds do a few worksheets. Honestly, I think having a preschooler trace a few letters on a worksheet is a more effective and efficient way to have them learn to write their letters than handing them some shaving cream and hoping they will be inspired to use it for such a purpose. Not to mention, the pre-schools that would dare give a 4 year old tracing worksheets, typically do let them play with shaving cream as well.

It is hard to explain if you have not been in the same situation. By all means, do what is right for your young child to thrive.

Anonymous wrote:The bottom line is that if a kid comes from a family where any parent even bothers to think about the distinction of play-based preschool vs. academic preschool, then she will do just fine in either one, or she will do just fine with no preschool at all.

It just doesn't matter, people.

More on this:

http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/the_kids/2013/01/how_important_is_preschool_if_you_are_researching_early_education_philosophies.html

The bottom line is that if a kid comes from a family where any parent even bothers to think about the distinction of play-based preschool vs. academic preschool, then she will do just fine in either one, or she will do just fine with no preschool at all.

It just doesn't matter, people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

I actually disagree. My son is at a preschool with no staff with ECE credentials, and it is SO MUCH better in every way than the preschool that had credentialed staff. In a best case scenario, long-time childcare workers without degrees are just good with kids (and, more importantly, managing classrooms competently.) On the other hand, an indexperienced but credentialed teacher can be a nightmare. And pushing "academics" at least means that the staff is engaged with the kids, as opposed to letting them go all lord of the flies.

It's pretty hard to be credentialed without supervised exporsure to children--it's required as part of the certification.

Play-based does not mean free-for-all. It means that children learn skills to prepare them for academics through play. The best preparation for academic success when you are talking about the 7-and under set means the ability to follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills (which are correlated with gross motor skills). A teacher who demands that a three year old sit still and write on a sheet of paper is not developing the whole child. Child psychologists observe that children who participate in dramatic play, in particular, are able to develop executive functioning skills compared to children who do not.

Trust me, the level of exposure to kids required to work in DCPS schools is really minimal. Any single one of the daycare ladies at our daycare had more experience than the collective ECE staff at our highly regarded DCPS.

Also, nothing of what you describe there sounds like "play." Please explain, in detail, how you teach a room of 16 3 year olds to "follow directions, stay focused, exchange ideas with verbal accuracy, participate in conversation, and acquire fine motor skills" through play.

Here's one example

Re-creating "real-life" situations: restaurant, grocery store, auto repair shop, teacher-student, doctor, vet. The teacher asks questions to get the students organized as a group (e.g., what furniture does a restaurant have? Who are the people who work at a restaurant? What kind of food should the restaurant serve? etc., etc.), gets props ready, helps the students to get in character, observes, etc. There is a lot of following directions, staying focused (in one's role), exchanging ideas, conversation, writing (e.g., the menu, the check, etc.), and math (how much should we charge? how much does one drink and one pizza cost?)

At our school, the students actually served the parents in their "restaurant" at the end of the semester. For the kids, it was directed play, not chaos, and it was a far, far better way to incorporate the skills required for school than rote worksheets which are meaningless for children this age. Children need a context for their learning.

For the kids, this was wonderful pretend play, but as you can see, there are a lot of

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

I actually disagree. My son is at a preschool with no staff with ECE credentials, and it is SO MUCH better in every way than the preschool that had credentialed staff. In a best case scenario, long-time childcare workers without degrees are just good with kids (and, more importantly, managing classrooms competently.) On the other hand, an indexperienced but credentialed teacher can be a nightmare. And pushing "academics" at least means that the staff is engaged with the kids, as opposed to letting them go all lord of the flies.

Of course, it is not 100% one way or the other. Our experience with "academic" preschool was not engagement, more of pushing worksheets and not developing curiosity or learning skills, but drilling children specific assigned tasks, that seemed very inappropriate for preschoolers. We are in a play-based preschool now with staff mostly with no ECE credentials and it is fantastic.

Was it the worksheets themselves that you consider very inappropriate, or what they were asked to do on the worksheet that wasn't appropriate for pre-schoolers? I really don't get the hysteria over having 4 year olds do a few worksheets. Honestly, I think having a preschooler trace a few letters on a worksheet is a more effective and efficient way to have them learn to write their letters than handing them some shaving cream and hoping they will be inspired to use it for such a purpose. Not to mention, the pre-schools that would dare give a 4 year old tracing worksheets, typically do let them play with shaving cream as well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jees, I can't believe the iota the parents on this thread who dismiss play without having ANY clue the role it plays in learning,

I'm not dismissing play and the role it plays in learning. I just think a lot of people talk about "play based preschools" without any idea of what this means in practice when you have a classroom setting. A free for all where the kids do whatever they want? Being given a set of limited stations and materials, eg "choice time"? "Fun" activities like art projects that are teacher-directed but not expressly academic? etc etc.

Actually in "true" play-based pre-schools, the art projects aren't even teacher directed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have any of you ever been to a GOOD play-based preschool?

They do things like practice writing letters with shaving cream, build a dam when part of the playground floods and then float boats through the current, experiment with objects that sink or float etc. My daughter's preschool had someone come in from the White House staff to talk about presidential pets. They invite Native American Indians to the school where they talk about the culture and do a drumming show. They do lots of art projects that help children learn to use scissors and glue. They teach them how to walk in a line, how to listen to a teacher, how to zip their coats. They practice adding with groups of various objects.

It's not just a free for all.

That doesn't sound like "play-based." Those sound like fun, but teacher-directed activities. (Not that there's anything wrong with that - I just don't see how it's "play-based.")

Yes I agree. Generally the term "play-based" means lack of teacher-directed activities. Focused activities such as circle time are generally not done in schools that take the play-based label seriously. From what I've seen all pre-schools are play based. Even the "academic" pre-schools teach skills in a fun, playful manner and give students plenty of time for independent centers and outdoor play. Truthfully I think the terms play-based and academic really have more to do with the amount of direct instruction the children are given.

Anonymous wrote:
Yes, ideally it is about balance. But if the preschool does not have properly educated/experienced staff, more damage can be done by pushing academics than in a play-based environment. I would steer away from an academic preschool unless I trust the competency of the staff. At least one person in a preschool should have early education credentials, and I know at least one preschool where that is not the case.

My kid did great at an academic preschool. The play based was a waste of money and time.