My kids went to St Johns in Georgetown which is Reggio. It is a fantastic preschool and my kids, now in middle-high schools years, have always been identified as extremely curious, risk-taking students. Of course, some of this is innate personality but I truly believe that each of them internalized a lot of that from St Johns. They all have fairly different personalities but in this they are all similar. They often keep delving into a subject even when other kids have stopped because they "found the answer". They went on from St Johns to excellent DC area privates and I have no regrets about how much money St Johns cost, even though it is expensive, because I do think it set them up to be successful students with a love of learning and an unusual level of trust in their teachers' intellectual honesty and commitment. That said, I dont believe that St Johns is the only place you can find that but I do believe that a preschool with a great student-teacher ratio that uses an active, engaged philosophy, is the key.

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Anonymous wrote:Even art projects can reflect the philosophy of the school. Are the kids shown a sample project made by the teacher and then given the supplies to make their own (which, of course, will be sloppy and cockeyed by comparison), or are they given a collection of raw materials and told to make them into whatever they want? The first approach can damage self-esteem, whereas the latter fosters creativity and imagination.

Can we all just pay attention to the absurdity of this discussion for a minute? 40,000 years of evolution in unbelievably challenging circumstances (elements, famine, war), and now we worry about damaging children by showing them what adults are capable of producing? I swear the end of times is upon us.

As someone who has worked in incredibly challenging circumstances in the current world -- environments that involve famine, war, and disaster -- there's a lot of damage that happens to children under those circumstances. Surviving is not thriving.

Children can survive an awful lot. That doesn't mean there isn't damage from less dramatic events in their lives. Children who are subjected to highly academic and structured environments will be more anxious about learning, less creative, and have less initiative. That's damage I don't want my children to have.

Anonymous wrote:Even art projects can reflect the philosophy of the school. Are the kids shown a sample project made by the teacher and then given the supplies to make their own (which, of course, will be sloppy and cockeyed by comparison), or are they given a collection of raw materials and told to make them into whatever they want? The first approach can damage self-esteem, whereas the latter fosters creativity and imagination.

Can we all just pay attention to the absurdity of this discussion for a minute? 40,000 years of evolution in unbelievably challenging circumstances (elements, famine, war), and now we worry about damaging children by showing them what adults are capable of producing? I swear the end of times is upon us.

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Anonymous wrote:DD went to a play-based preschool, and her kindergarten teacher was amazed at how well prepared she was for kindergarten. You can't generalize---schools (and kids)are all different.

+1 I'm the PP whose DC went to a play-based school and scored 99+ percentile on the WPPSI. My DC was extremely well-prepared for K. More than that, DC loves learning and is creative, imaginative, and shows a lot of initiative in engaging with the world, While some of this is inborn temperament, I credit DC's wonderful play-based preschool and dedicated, loving teachers for helping DC learn in a way that was effortless and fun.

+1

Anonymous wrote:DD went to a play-based preschool, and her kindergarten teacher was amazed at how well prepared she was for kindergarten. You can't generalize---schools (and kids)are all different.

+1 I'm the PP whose DC went to a play-based school and scored 99+ percentile on the WPPSI. My DC was extremely well-prepared for K. More than that, DC loves learning and is creative, imaginative, and shows a lot of initiative in engaging with the world, While some of this is inborn temperament, I credit DC's wonderful play-based preschool and dedicated, loving teachers for helping DC learn in a way that was effortless and fun.

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Anonymous wrote:We went to an "academic" preschool. The kids thrived. They were all prepared for K. and had the skills they needed. They had tons of outdoor time, lots of free play (much more than they say), music/art, and much more. Play based does not prepare kids for K. and then parents complain how hard K. is.

so what was "academic" about it, in your opinion?

just very curious about this because my DS is attending a very play based program that he is thriving in socially, but not learning any skills like pre-writing etc.

18:35, pre-writing should look like play. It's pretty much developing fine motor skills -- I.e. Beading, playing with Duplos, small blocks, pounding "nails" into styrofoam, painting with brushes, drawing with big markers,and many other activities that may not look like they are at all academic or related to writing. Kids need to get enough control over their wrist, hand, and finger movements before they are ready to grab a pencil/pen. Most preschool's don't start teaching writing until pre-K. Even then, the younger boys may struggle a bit. In general, boys take longer to master the fine motor skills.

Anonymous wrote:We went to an "academic" preschool. The kids thrived. They were all prepared for K. and had the skills they needed. They had tons of outdoor time, lots of free play (much more than they say), music/art, and much more. Play based does not prepare kids for K. and then parents complain how hard K. is.

so what was "academic" about it, in your opinion?

just very curious about this because my DS is attending a very play based program that he is thriving in socially, but not learning any skills like pre-writing etc.

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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 Slate article, like most "popular reading," is rather simplistic.

More in depth studies demonstrate that "academic preschools" that use rote learning, memorization, and drilling (endless worksheets, Kumon, etc.) for preschool age kids are detrimental. They create learning anxiety, reduce imagination and problem-solving initiative, and increase aversion to school.


Oh come on. What preschool is giving four year olds "endless" worksheets?

Thins who proudly identify themselves as academic preschools. And there are many parents who are anxious, but ignorant and think that the worksheets and drilling are giving their children a head start on learning.

I still want to know how 3 and 4 year olds, the vast majority of who
cannot write or read, do worksheets?

That's how the schools try to teach reading, writing, and math -- through the use of worksheets.

They have kids write the same things over and over and fill in math sheets. The kids do memorize a lot of things, but they are way too young to truly understand things conceptually. It can really F**& up their relationship with learning.

are you sure this is preschool and not K? none of the children (even the advanced ones) could have done worksheets like that at 3.

Since you are so skeptical, why don't you do your own research? Google academic preschool, then go visit the schools who advertise themselves that way instead of being an arm-chair skeptic who clearly has no clue.

calm down. I am not the one who is claiming that there are preschools that make 3 year olds do written "academic" worksheets. I am totally sure that there are preschools that have age-inappropriate expectations, but I just can't picture anyone trying to make a 3 year old do a worksheet. So "academic" must mean something else (for 3 year olds anyway). And then you have people saying "play based" can be "teaching through play" ... which starts to sound very academic!

Anonymous wrote:The videos on the Appletree website (link provided by a prior poster) talk a lot about "scores" and "lessons" and show things like having the kids try to make the letter Q out of Popsicle sticks and teaching from the front of the room with the teacher writing on an easel. All of these are foreign concepts in a play-based preschool.

You really don't know what you're talking about. I don't know anything about Appletree, but I do know a lot about play-based preschools. Play-based teach through play, and might do something similar. I seem to recall one of my DCs making letter shapes with his body in our play-based preschool. Play-based preschool kids do just fine.

There is a difference between non-educators trying to pass themselves off as play-based and the play-based schools that are NAEYC-accredited. There are many schools that aren't NAEYC-accredited that are still excellent play-based schools (the accreditation is expensive for some schools). However, if you don't know enough about early childhood education to be able to distinguish, either educate yourself or use the NAEYC accreditation as a signal.

DD went to a play-based preschool, and her kindergarten teacher was amazed at how well prepared she was for kindergarten. You can't generalize---schools (and kids)are all different.

We went to an "academic" preschool. The kids thrived. They were all prepared for K. and had the skills they needed. They had tons of outdoor time, lots of free play (much more than they say), music/art, and much more. Play based does not prepare kids for K. and then parents complain how hard K. is.

The videos on the Appletree website (link provided by a prior poster) talk a lot about "scores" and "lessons" and show things like having the kids try to make the letter Q out of Popsicle sticks and teaching from the front of the room with the teacher writing on an easel. All of these are foreign concepts in a play-based preschool.