Kindergartners and Play

Play IS the work of young kids!
Smart moms know that.
We're past the "play" K phase, but I still feel it's important for Tweens to run, jump, play hard and get their yayas out EVERY day.
Organized sports can be great. But, in general, I feel that kids are often over scheduled and overextended.

Reading before kindergarten goes hand in hand with the people who redshirt for no reason. (I believe in redshirting if there is a reason, but it seems to be the cool trend for a lot of people). THREE kids in my son's kindergarten class (last year) turned 7 in kinder. All three were very bright and probably should not have been redshirted to begin with--parents just wanted them to be the smartest/biggest?!?!? So, many of those kids are reading because they're starting kindergarten at 6 or 6.5...which is the age you should be reading.

I share your concern. I am adamantly opposed to "academic preschools", pressure to read, pressure to perform on standardized tests, and so on. And while we're at it, I'm opposed to excessive pressure to play organized sports at a young age. This attitude of "my child will be behind" is so damaging.

Where our children are behind is in critical thinking, creative problem solving, independence, decision-making, and the ability to be who they are. They are deprived of free play and inventiveness, they are not allowed to just hang out in the yard and play with the neighborhood kids, they can't ride bikes because we're petrified of child predators, and they have to compete compete compete all the time in some organized activity. So they spend their lives in the car and the fast food drive-through because "there's no time" for a family dinner.

Kids need to be allowed to learn in different ways. Play is one of those ways. Unplugged from TVs and computers and iPads. Unenrolled in expensive programs that are breaking the bank. My child was allowed to have one structured activity of his choice (he tried Rec Department soccer, then basketball, etc.) and one of my choosing (Hebrew School). The other days, he played in the neighborhood or occasionally (no more than once a week) with a play date with a child from outside the neighborhood that required some scheduling. I wasn't opposed to this but I didn't want him dependent on driving somewhere when we live in a neighborhood with a ton of kids. They rode bikes and built forts and had arguments and dug in the dirt and played frisbee. When it got dark, they came home for dinner.

When he was in high school he got really interested in track and cross country, so he did those every day. We supported it, went to meets, and worked the family dinners around practices. He turned into an independent, creative thinker with strong leadership skills and he went to a good college because he had a brain and some maturity, not because we forced him to read at age 3.

My kids weren't reading fluently in or before kindergarten...they knew words...while education is important, we stress PLAY.

You can learn while you play...

I don't demand or set aside time for play...it happens naturally...yes, homework first...but it's typically done fast...then they go outside and play or (urgh) play the XBOX....although they've been doing the "just dance" and having fun too.

My kids play all day, every day :-). Unschooling rocks.

I do get in fights with co-op members about play. I just remind them of our need to Deschool, to let go, to trust that in play kids do the best kinds of learning.

Thank for sharing!

Oh ya, my oldest reads for at least 3 hours a day. She sees reading as playing. It's her favorite activity. It's really too bad we've turned something that is so much fun into a 20 minute daily chore. I can't imagine kids who don't love books, even my 19 minth old spends a few hours looking at books everyday.

Long live play!

My daughter's (almost former) school had kindergarten classes with a mix of kids who had little to no exposure to reading all the way to kids who were on a second grade level. DD is somewhere is the middle.

I am not too bothered by teaching kids to read early (although I do think the general mentality of "getting ahead" at such a young age is absurd) because some kids are ready and it can be done in a fun and playful way. I am bothered by one teacher teaching a class of students with such disparate backgrounds, because ultimately it means she will need to focus entirely on getting the kids with little exposure to reading/writing caught up.

In our case, that meant my daughter was left to 'independently learn' in her seat which amounted to her regressing a bit in the subject and not getting any time to really 'play' and learn by exploration. I'm not sure what the solution is, because I think the teacher is kind of trapped by the situation handed to her, but it was very frustrating to see her regress from preschool and complain of boredom in class every day (this is a girl who is wonderful at entertaining herself and getting into mischief). I am definitely excited to see her have more time to run around outside and create her own projects as we begin to homeschool.

My daughter goes to a play-based preschool three mornings a week and we love it. She is only there for three hours. They spend about 45-60 minutes doing their choice of organized crafts and games or free play, followed by a 20-30 minute circle time, then snack, an hour or so outside, and another 10-15 minute circle time at the end. It's awesome - she gets the social experience and structure of school without being forced to learn academics at too young of an age. They learn through play, building the foundations for reading and math, social studies and science.

Our afternoons are varied - some days she naps and other days she has quiet time (often with my son), where they can play and do whatever they want, as long as it's quiet. Some days my son has soccer practice. If he doesn't, we try to see friends after school. Otherwise, we play board games or the kids just play around at home.

S., I think kids learn many things while they're playing. By tumbling a stack of blocks over they're learning about gravity, by playing with colored blocks they're learning to sort and group, by stacking cups inside each other they're learning to nest things (my hubby still has no concept of this).

By playing they're integrating many things they sit at the table and learn. There are just so many things that playing does. If you google children learn as they play you can find a host of resources that say the same thing.

This trend is so aggravating. Did you see the recent question on here about the kindergartener who was at school for 8 hours and then was given an hour of homework every night? Absolutely ridiculous.

My kids' kindergarten experience seemed fun, from what I recall. It seemed pretty play-based, they enjoyed it, and I don't recall their getting homework. But back then I believed in homework -- after 25 years' experience with this stuff, I don't any more.

The article mentions Common Core -- I do like a lot about CC in middle and high school. I don't know what it looks like at the elementary level.

I think play time is important for all kids, not just the young ones. I think we learn so much more when we are not pushed to do it and everyone needs to decompress.

My daughter never went to daycare/preschool and started reading just before kindergarten, but she loved to be read to and begged me to teach her. All kids are different and they all learn differently and at different paces. That's one of the biggest problems I have with public and private schools, we are not a one size fits all species.

My daughter and her classmates excelled in kindergarten because of the wonderful teacher they had. She knew they needed play time and would use that to teach them. They were all above average until the following year with a different teacher that rarely had play time and expected 6 & 7 year olds to sit still all day (among other things). It was then that I decided to homeschool (with other reasons too) because I saw the differences in how she learns.

There are many things kids can learn from play time and from some of their games (including video games). I use her time playing minecraft for lessons too.

My kids only went to nursery school three afternoons a week, and kindergarten was half day. The rest of the time was playtime, whether we were home, at play group, museum, zoo, YMCA, playground etc.

For me, reading has always been a pleasure. So I read to or with my kids for at least an hour a day. Not out of some superior parenting master plan, but because I love it. I love sharing fafavorite stories and snuggling, watching them discover my favorites, discovering new favorites together. But other than reading and my first grader's math homework, I consider school to be their work day. When they get home, we relax and enjoy each other. Educational stuff happens, but nothing structured. My little one loves cooking, that comes with reading, math, chemistry, colors, etc. My older one is always doing unintentional math, like if chess is in two days and Halloween is nine days after that, how many days until Halloween? No need to break out the workbooks every day!

Let's start a revolution S. T. A "LET THE KIDS PLAY" revolution. You and I are kindred spirits!

I am glad that my husband and I did not fall prey to this new way of thinking of pushing our kids to excel, excel, excel at everything they do and at such a young age. It leads to overstressed, unhappy, unfulfilled, perfectionist children that burn out young and lose their zest for life and learning.

When my kids hit the door after school, I tell them to head back outside and play. They have free time until family dinner at 6. Then it is family time and then they get to their homework.

Something that has shaped our way of parenting and managing their public school experiences comes from my husband's observations at work. He has the hardest time hiring solid employees at his job. Sure, they have a college degree but he has fired sooo many really nice,good people simply because they don't work well with others, don't take constructive criticism and try harder to improve, don't take initiative on projects and have to be told step by step instructions and the list goes on.

I believe the schools have been pumping out robots that are not equipped for real life experiences in the workforce. Experiences that don't fit the textbook answer. I think the new Common Core fundamentals are helping in these areas...critical thinking, problem solving, team work.

Ok...I could go on and on. This is a real hot button for me as I am surrounded by my kids friend's parents who are pushing their kids at a rate that most adults don't keep up with and yet they say they are getting them ready for life..for the real world. Such a fallacy! Poor kids. And we wonder why so many kids are medicated, marriages are stressed and test scores are low. Maybe we are approaching education all wrong and measuring "success" wrong as well.

Ok..getting down now and off my soapbox. I have got to be ready soon for the troops when they walk through the door after a long day of sitting.

I have not yet found the balance. My oldest (a girl) learned to read before kindergarten because she wanted to. She fits into a traditional academic model very easily. My second (a son two years younger than the first) went to the same school - bilingual immersion - but the academic "pressure" around testing was not good for him and he suffered from test anxiety for a long while (he says he is over it now). He is going to a different high school than she is. She goes to a traditional school and he goes to a PBL New Technology Network school). My youngest (he is 10 and 8 years younger than the others) goes to a public Waldorf-inspired school. Kindergarten was certainly about play. However, in first grade and second, they have not really learned to read and he is bored, which is causing some issues. The academic rigor increases and passes traditional elementary schools but in the meantime this is not really working for him. He can actually read quite well (because he wants me to work with him, so we have) but because of his school he doesn't want to say he can read, because it is so frowned on there. I like certain things about the school and they get experiences there that they will not get elsewhere so we are staying there but it is going to be a tough year and I hope we get to the point of learning more quickly soon.