Fun Learning and Criteria for Preschool Selection

 

Preschool is so much fun. Baby boomers remember kindergarten as a time of play and social interaction. Today, kindergarten is serious business with most students learning how to read before going on to 1st grade.


Learning Should be Fun in Preschools
Deborah Stipek, the dean of the school of education at Stanford University, one of the most highly respected colleges in the United States, calls academic preschools "Drill and Kill." Stipek says, "I’ve gone into preschools and listened to children recite the alphabet or count to 100, for example. And people might say, ‘Oh, what a great school!’ because the children recite this information. But if you ask, ‘If you have three cookies and I give you another one, how many do you have?’ they wouldn’t know."
However, Stipek is not in favor of totally unstructured preschools either. "I’m supportive of learning activities that are intentional and planned, but fun and engaging for kids."


Criteria for Preschool Selection
Rae Pica, author of A Running Start: How Play, Physical Activity, and Free Time Create a Successful Child [Marlow & Co., 2006] and Great Games for Young Children [Gryphon House, 2006], tells of her preferences when selecting a preschool. Research shows that children learn better in the following format:

• Movement is the young child’s preferred mode of learning.
• Lessons that are physically experienced have more immediate and longer-lasting impact.
• The integration of body systems allows for optimal learning to take place.
• The more senses used in the learning process, the more information retained.
• Play is linked to greater creativity and problem solving, improved reading levels, and higher IQ scores.

There is a strong correlation between the time children are most playful and the time when the brain is making the most connections.
Therefore, Pica suggests that parents look for the following when selecting a preschool for their child.

• Sorting and stacking blocks and other manipulatives (mathematical knowledge)
• Singing and dancing, or acting out a story (emergent literacy)
• Growing plants from seeds, exploring the outdoors, and investigating at sand and water tables (science)
• Trying on various roles and interacting with one another at housekeeping and other dramatic-play centers (Social Studies).

Citation:
Victoria Clayton, "Should preschools be all work, no play?," msnbc.com, August 6, 2007.
Rae Pica, Place of Your Own, December 2009.