Play is children’s work.  Through play, children learn to socialize with others, to form relationships, develop skills of empathy, cooperation, and self-regulation.  Children use play to make sense of their world.  During play, children learn the functional use of many different materials, how they work and how to manipulate them.  It is during this type of play that a child will work to master a new experience prior to putting it to work in real life.  For example:

·   learning to zip or button a babydolls clothing

·   learning to pour using rice in the sand and water table

·   learning to hold a pencil, while coloring

Children also learn mastery through designing play experiences that build upon current knowledge.  Many preschool materials are open-ended.  They have no right or wrong way to play, blocks, lego’s, housekeeping, sand and water play, playdoh etc.  Through the manipulation of these items children can master new goals without feeling a sense of failure or frustration.  Children will continue to pursue their interest in a material over and over again until it is mastered.  Some items within a preschool classroom are self correcting, such as a puzzle, game, scale etc.  Through this type of play children’s cognitive (thinking) skills are developed.  When play is on their own terms, they play for the fun of it, not recognizing the learning, only concerning themselves with the action at hand.

“Contrary to what one might expect, the benefits of rich play experiences during the preschool years are extensive and address academic goals for reading and writing, math, science, social studies, and the arts.  Several decades of research show that high-quality preschool programs that aim to strengthen social and emotional skills through play have positive effects on all aspects of children’s development-including cognitive or intellectual development.  What’s more, these positive effects are long lasting.  Programs that overemphasize academic learning through teacher-directed instruction in preschool may produce short-term results, but they fail in the long run to improve children’s success in school and in life” (Preschool for Parents, Trister-Dodge & Bickart).

Academic Instruction

Through years of college instruction, I have learned what is and is not appropriate methods of instruction for young children, and run my program accordingly. 

Here at Little Tot’s Early Childhood Care & Education I am careful to provide just the right amount of structure, not overshadowing a child’s need for self-directed experiences and socialization.  The Little Tot’s curriculum is theme based.  The teachers here at Little Tot’s choose themes built on information that is relevant to the child’s everyday life.  Within a thematic unit the child is exposed to relevant information and learning experiences in a connected manner that facilitates the child’s interest in the subject.  Each theme is explored in several subject areas, Language & Literacy, Math, Social Studies, Science, Art and Music.  Information is presented in a fun way that is relevant to the child’s life and encourages participation.  Thematic units work well to help the information to ‘sink in.’ By presenting material in a variety of ways children have many opportunities to learn the information that we are presenting. 

All themes last two weeks.  I have found that the longer the theme, the more learning activities and exposure that a child has to a subject, the more information that they retain.  I feel that a two-week time span allows for an optimal learning experience.  All lessons are created here at Little Tot’s, I do not purchase a packaged curriculum due to the limits that they place on learning opportunities.  During our staff meetings, themes are discussed based on instruction needed within the classroom.  At Little Tot’s I believe in student centered learning.  I tailor the curriculum to meet the needs of all children enrolled.  If I see a need, such as nutrition education, safety skills, misunderstanding of relevant life information, I can design our theme to meet these needs.  At the end of each two-week period of instruction all enrolled families receive a newsletter describing all of our learning activities in all of the developmental areas.

Numerous studies done over the past several years have shown that children construct their understanding of the world based on direct manipulation of objects and experiences that are provided to them.  One of the sad circumstances of too much academic instruction in the early years is the proliferation of children that are lacking in social emotional development.

I have spoken with several kindergarten teachers that have explained that above anything else they wish that their students had developed the ability to relate with others and exhibit self-regulatory skills such as speaking confidently, separating from their parents, and controlling their own behaviors.  Clearly having academic skills won’t help a child who cannot stop crying, make friends, follow directions or participate in class activities.

“...Children who have friends, who know how to work cooperatively with others, and who can manage their emotions are happier and more likely to be successful in school and in life than children who do not have these skills.  A child’s social experiences during the first five years, at home and in group settings, form the foundation for what we now call emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand one’s feelings, control impulses and anger, sooth anxiety, show empathy and interact positively with others and persevere to achieve one’s goals” (Preschool for Parents, Trister-Dodge & Bickart).

Here is an example of what educators now know about the pushing down of curriculum to the early years:

“In the 1960’s there was a movement toward early teaching, led by a professor at Yale, Dr. O. K. Moore.  He felt that if children could be taught early to read and write, they’d be more competitive when they entered school.  It was true.  In order to please adults around them, three year olds could read and write successfully.  They didn’t seem to know what they were reading, but they could do it.  When they reached first grade, they were ahead of other children, and they received the adult approval they needed.  But, the other children didn’t particularly like them, and many of these ‘precocious’ children hadn’t learned the skills they needed to get along with peers.  They were adult oriented.  In second and third grades, they began to slip.  The rote learning processes they’d used to learn earlier didn’t generalize to the more complex learning they needed in later grades.  They seemed stuck with more primitive learning methods.  When they began to slip from the top of the class, they lost the adult approval for which they’d been performing.  These unfortunate children then hit bottom” (Touchpoints, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, M.D.).

As Dr. Brazelton stated above, pushing children toward academic achievement early in life is not only detrimental to their social and emotional development, but it has never been shown to have any benefit to a child’s future academic skills.  We all know children can easily learn by rote (memorization without true understanding).  How often do we hear a young child singing the alphabet or counting to ten who has no actual concept of letter recognition or sound, and who has not learned the skill of one to one correspondence (one means one object, two means two objects etc).  Here at Little Tot's we provide just the right amount of academic instruction and through our positive 'parenting' methods children learn to be self confident and happy with themselves.  We teach them in a manner that they build upon the knowledge that they have obtained in a natural order, and glean from their early childhood the necessary skills to be successful later in life.

At Little Tot’s our methods are to immerse the children in an environment filled with interesting, educational and challenging materials, to facilitate the quest for discovery.  We then observe and interact with the children encouraging their exploration and curiosity.  Through our observations of the children we learn what things are currently making an impression on them, and we act to implement a theme or lesson surrounding their interests.  It is by acting on those interests that we so easily can teach a child important life lessons and skills.  When you find that ‘teachable moment’ the door is wide open for learning, and here at Little Tot’s we are ‘opening doors’ everyday!