Some thoughts on PLAY-ing

I’m thinking about a quote from Jean Piaget- one of the theorists still studied today across many specialties…
“Play is the work of childhood”.

What does this mean to me?… Everything!
This is central to what I do and how I ensure we operate in our preschool setting.

Let me backtrack a bit. My mom runs a day care centre and preschool and I coordinate the curriculum with my younger sister who is the head teacher. We have a relaxed setting, no uniforms, desks or chairs. We focus on life skills which they learn in real time aaand there is also a time for academics and formal learning.

Don’t get me wrong. We do not just have the children running wild all day. Much of what they do is work to them. They must consciously engage themselves in activities that have become second nature to us (using the bathroom, bathing and changing) and they focus on playing like it is a “job”.. because it is!

Parents of preschoolers, please do not worry too much about the specifics of what the children are doing academically. There will be evidence enough of that in their discussions and questions..

What we, as primary school teachers need you to really focus on is getting them to be kind and tolerant. Work on independence and self-reliance and confidence. Build them up. Let them know they are loved and amazing in their own right..

When you play with them, allow them to lose. 👀 Express your frustration and exhilaration in front of them so they know how to manage both.

Are you cleaning a shelf or bag? 🤦🏽‍♀How can you involve them? Give them something unpack and repack, give them something to count and sort.

At this stage their learning is not about books and paper and pencils… All of these children need to come out knowing their numbers 1-10, the alphabet and some basic colours, shapes and words… many of them are on the way to doing this already. This is not the hard part…

Focus on pencil grip, cutting, packing, unpacking and repacking a bag and lunch kit, bathing (we still go through this with our Primary school aged campers), washing hands, bathroom etiquette.. these things are more difficult to teach in Primary School.

Do not get caught up in the parents who have children at 2 doing 47 multiplication sums for homework.. 🤨
Do. NOT. Do. It.
Let them do them. You do you.
When they come to us (in Primary School) everybody does everything over and we often can’t tell the difference!

Lots of love
TeeJay ❤