Empowered by Play » kindergarten

What is the Big Deal About Blocks?

Geralyn — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:02:10 +0000

“What is the big deal about blocks?” Melitsa Aliva asked me this question earlier this week. We were recording a podcast for her show, Raising Playful Tots , based in the UK. Blocks have been a longtime favorite of mine, and I have been advocating even more for block play as the pushy digital world steals more and more authentic experiences from the hands of our children. You may have heard about the study released on Tuesday by Common Sense Media, reporting that “half (52%) of all 0- to 8-year-olds have access to a new mobile device, such as a smartphone, video iPod, or iPad/tablet”. If only the same were true for blocks!

Blocks are as relevant as they have ever been – perhaps more now than ever – offering a wide range of positive experiences for children of all ages. Socialization, creativity, problem solving, language development, cause and effect, math and science, motor development – these are all vital skills that are deeply enhanced through block play.

I’ve recently been hearing early childhood educators refer to their Smart Boards and iPads as being “hands on” tools. They are not. Knocking over a virtual tower is not the same kinesthetic experience as knocking down a real block tower. Touching a worm on a screen is not the same thing as holding a wiggling worm in your hand. Not even close. It worries me when early childhood professionals describe their teacher-directed Smart Board literacy lessons as “engaging students holistically.” They are not.

The most developmentally appropriate technology we have for preschoolers and kindergartners have been our tried and true technologies such as crayons, balls and blocks. Add nature, and you have all the materials you need. And as one preschool teacher once commented on this blog:

“I have always been against computers in early childhood classrooms and feel we need to fight to keep them out. Every argument I have heard for them is an argument I see against them. To ‘You can listen to bird calls on them’ , I say ‘go outside and listen to the birds’. To ‘There is a wonderful counting program kids can use to learn numbers and counting skills’, I say ‘Take your child outside and count acorns.’ Thanks for bringing this to our attention and I for one will never have a computer in my early childhood classroom.”

The other wonderful thing about blocks (and nature!) is that they will not be obsolete in a year or two. Invest in a good set of blocks and your child (and grandchildren) will play with them for years and years to come. Blocks are never the same toy twice – as children invent and reinvent each time they play. And as children grow, their block play evolves and becomes more elaborate. Add a few simple accessories – such as pine cones or ping-pong balls, and a whole new range of experiences will open up for the child.

For schools with tight budgets, blocks and professional development opportunities about the power of block play are sound investments. When I read about the school district in Auburn, Maine spending $200,000 on iPads for all their incoming kindergarten students, I was shocked and saddened. What will the children be missing in order to make the time and money available for this digital push? How quickly will those iPads become passe? How much support will the teachers receive?

For folks who think that bringing the digital world to younger and younger children is the key to 21st Century learning – there just isn’t evidence to bear that out. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics just upheld their long standing position for no screen-time for children under the age of two. Children are social and sensory learners – they learn better from interacting with actual people and playing with the world around them – than from screens.

High-tech employers such as Cal Tech’s Jet Propulsion lab now actually ask potential employees how he or she played as a child. They look for folks who played with clocks and took them apart to see how they worked; people who built things; who had authentic, playful experiences and have become the creative problem-solvers and innovators that this company needs. You can read more about this in Dr. Stuart Brown’s wonderful book Play, How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul. We can also look to Mitchel Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT’s Media Lab. He knows that traditional kindergarten classrooms provide the key experiences for creating and working collaboratively – so much so he has modeled his lab after a traditional kindergarten classroom. Furthermore, his playful programming language Scratch is used by 8 – 16 year olds. He did not design it for the early childhood world. And when using Scratch, these older children are creators rather than consumers of technology.

Blocks come a range of sizes and are made from a range of materials. For the youngest explorers, my favorite is the Mini Unit Block set designed by Community Playthings for one-year-olds and up. I use these blocks in my workshops, and adults love them as well. If space provides, a full set of unit blocks is wonderful for preschoolers and school age children. Hollow wooden blocks allow children to build structures large and strong enough to climb on and climb into. Excellent!

KEVA planks, which I’ve written about in the past, are also engaging for children of all ages – including adults. (See KEVA planks post below.) If you are a LEGO fan, and I know there are many of you out there, stick to the open-ended sets, such as the LEGO Creator kits which can be made into a range of things. Steer clear of the television and movie character sets, which can be limiting to the child’s creativity. (Even as I write this, my own sons are lobbying hard for some Star Wars LEGO sets for Christmas – so believe me, I know how hard this one is to follow!)

Really, the key here is playing with moveable parts and loose pieces. The simpler the toy, the more that will come from inside the child. Can your child take apart your iPhone to see how it works and use the pieces to create something new? It can’t happen that way. As she plays, is she learning how to ask her own questions, develop her own theories, and test them out? Is your son diligently creating something unique which builds on what he discovered yesterday and incorporates a friend’s new idea? Is your child learning to value her own ability to invent, create, innovate and entertain? These are questions that can help guide you as you make choices for the children in your life. I urge you to consider blocks.

Here are some great block resources:

The Block Book by Elizabeth Hirsh,ed.

Foundations of Block Play (video)

KEVA Planks

Block Play; Collage issue from January 2005 from Community Playthings

And here are some related blog posts:

Live Your Life

Radical Preschool

KEVA Planks – Creating Fun for Everyone

Victories Worth Celebrating!

A special thanks to teacher Laurel McConville and Mission Hill School, Roxbury MA for many of the pictures used in this blog post! And stay tuned for details about how and when you can hear the blocks podcat from Raising Playful Tots.

The Rightful Return of Recess

Geralyn — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:21:35 +0000

Did you see this headline earlier this week in the New York Times?!?

Recess is Making a Comeback in Schools

Recess, which has been squeezed out of so many school days, is starting to gain traction once again. Recess has become part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign, and national organizations such as KaBoom! and Playworks are advocating hard for recess. This is good news for children of all ages. The benefits of recess are widely known - from reducing stress and obesity, to increased attention and more. Even with the focus on high-stakes testing, it is hard to understand why we have strayed so far from daily recess for our school children. It just doesn’t make any sense.

Now that the school year is in full swing, I wonder what your child’s recess experience has been. When my children were in Kindergarten, recess was one of the few parts of the day they looked forward to. When mandated assessments and curriculum constraints put pressure on their teachers to produce, produce, produce – it was recess that was shortened or even lost for the day. And boy, did I hear it from my sons when they didn’t have recess. They, to put it politely, were not happy. And how often does losing recess become a consequence that leads to more disruptive behavior and unhappiness?

Luckily, when I spoke to my boys’ Kindergarten teachers, they were very receptive. They agreed that recess is critical, and tried their hardest to bring it back. My boys were happier at school when recess returned. I’ve spoken to many parents who have had to advocate for recess for their children, not always with such positive results. If you find yourself needing to advocate for more recess in your school, I urge you to check out Peaceful Playgrounds where they have a very active Right to Recess campaign with loads of fantastic and free resources. This includes a webinar and a Power Point Presentation with a companion speaker’s guide with lecture notes and references!

And, if you are trying to advocate at your school, find other parents to work with. If your child is crying every evening, and feeling stressed at school, and lack of recess is at part of the problem, chances are very good that other children are feeling the same way. When parents join together, with the research and information to back their requests, schools will respond. If you are a teacher trying to bring back recess at your school – the Right to Recess campaign can help you, as well.

Play on!

Check out some related posts:

Recess (It’s not just for Congressmen)

Playful learning is more than just Sight Word BINGO

Alliance for Childhood’s press release on free plan and childhood obesity

Real versus virtual…drawing hearts

Geralyn — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:37:48 +0000

Drawing hearts is important work for many young children. Hearts aren’t too easy to draw, either. It takes practice to draw a passable, if not perfect heart, but the motivation is often high. I have watched the scenario unfold time and again in the early childhood classroom. One child (often a girl with an older sibling) will sit at the table and begin drawing pages of seemingly effortless hearts. She will make pictures for her family, friends and teachers – adorned with colorful hearts and perhaps the phrase “I LOVE YOU” (spelled phonetically or traditionally). Inevitably, a peer will witness this awesome event and long to be able to draw hearts and send similar loving notes to friends and family. “How do you make a heart?” the child will ask the friend. “Can you show me?”

Thereupon the expert heart-drawer will be called to coach the inquiring friend about how this heart-drawing thing works. There will be some initial frustration – but through trial and error, peer-coaching and deep motivation, the art of heart-drawing will be passed to the new child. The excitement will spread as others join in…coaching and critiquing each other as the thrill of heart-making catches like wildfire. Now loving notes are made by many children for many loved ones over many days.

This process is particularly dear to my heart, as receiving daily love notes was one of the best parts of being an early childhood teacher. I simply loved getting the notes throughout the day – and relived the joy each night at home as I emptied my pockets – only to rediscover the day’s love notes (along with random paperclips, pattern blocks and acorns).

So, it was with a heavy heart (yes) that I watched a recent iPad drawing app demonstration. In the video, we see a young girl making pictures on an iPad. Colorful hearts, which she “stamps” on the screen, cover her “drawing”. You see, I’ve begun asking proponents of technology in the early childhood classrooms to share with me the best examples of what they see as developmentally appropriate practice. This video was offered as an example, and in it we get a quick glimpse of the child drawing one lovely, awkward heart with her finger. When asked what she likes best, however, we aren’t surprised to hear her say, “I like the heart stamps.”

What’s the problem, then? For me the problem lies in how effortlessly the perfectly formed hearts cover the screen. They are all uniform in size and shape. Gone is the trial and error as a child truly gets a sense of the “heart-ness” of a shape as a child figures out: How do you get that symmetry? What works? What doesn’t? How can I get better?

Even using an actual stamp pad, or heart stencil, as many children do, leads to variations in the result. What happens if you press hard? Press lightly? Unevenly? What if your hand slips? How do all these affect the heart? It seems to me, tools such as actual markers, paper, stamp pads, stencils, scissors, etc… give children a wide berth for learning and exploring and making mistakes. Perhaps they build up resiliency and tenacity as they go through the process of trial and error to reach their self-imposed goal.

This iPad app, it seems to me, skips all of those important steps. It is so seductive and irresistible – with little effort from the child, hundreds of perfectly-shaped hearts pour onto the screen. It is an example of the quick and easy “gotta have it – and gotta have it now” mentality that is shaping our future generations. I wonder if a child who can make these perfect hearts with the iPad will now be less inclined to mess-around in the mucky and mistake-making (yet satisfying and community-building) process of heart-drawing.

Or, perhaps I am just being selfish. I’d much rather receive beautifully imperfect child-made love notes, one where the personal touch and quirkiness of each child is in evidence, then a page of perfectly shaped hearts where clearly the computer had more control over the final product than the child did. But that’s just me.

As I’ve stated before, I am all for assistive technology. Who isn’t? Assistive technology helps children and adults overcome communication hurdles and other disabilities, and I am all for older students and adults using technology as a tool. I do it everyday. But what I am NOT for is rushing our young children past real experiences – experiences which help them figure out who they are, what they are good at, and how they fit in the world. Using your own hands and mind to learn how to draw hearts and make one-of-a-kind loving notes for others is definitely a worthwhile pursuit.

Is your baby’s iPad drool-proof?

Geralyn — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:37:28 +0000

We were sitting around our campfire Saturday evening when my son said, “I’m glad we did this instead of watching TV.” I smiled and added, “Me, too.” It was our first campfire in many months, and we had a great time talking, laughing, watching the beautiful blaze, and toasting a few marshmallows.

The lure of the screen is always there – and finding ways to stay present in the actual world can be a challenge. We know that preschoolers spend 32 hours a week outside of school engaged in screens (Zimmerman, Christakis and Meltzoff, 2007). That is one of the reasons it was disheartening to hear about the school district in Auburn, Maine that is spending $200,000 to give every incoming kindergartner an iPad. The Superintendent Tom Morrill is quoted as saying, “What we’re seeing is that this is an essential tool — even more important than a book. It’s a learning tool they need to have.” Wow, more important than a book. Morrill is excited about new apps that are being developed for the iPad, so I wonder: where is the evidence that children will actually learn anything with them? (You can click below to watch the CNN story about the iPads for kindergartners, but be warned: a commercial will play before the news story begins.)

$200,000 is a lot of money. What would you spend it on? I would hire more assistant teachers to read one-on-one and in small groups. These real-live grown ups could form relationships with the kindergartners and help the teachers find just the right book to spark the individual interests of each student. And, I would definitely spend some money on blocks. Unit blocks, mini unit blocks, large hollow blocks – you name it – I’d get them into the kindergarten classrooms. Because, you know what? A set of unit blocks lasts a lifetime. The unit blocks can be used to teach children in all areas of the curriculum. Don’t believe it? Take a look the chart below from The Block Book, edited by Elisabeth Hirsch, a wonderful resource for supporting quality block play. (You should be able to click on the photo to enlarge it enough to read the words.)

I know that when new technology is rolled out, there is not always the technical support or time for professional development for on how to incorporate this technology into the daily curriculum. Teachers are often left to their own devices – such as finding a willing and able colleague to help along the way. Inevitably, when technology snafus arise – and they always arise – there is no tech person to call, or there is a long wait to get the help they need. And I wonder, in two years time, when the iPads are passe and new technology comes along, what then?

Time in the classroom is short. What will the iPads replace for these kindergartners? Socializing? Learning to read facial cues? Manipulating real-world materials? Time with real books? These are necessary endeavors which are already threatened. Rushing young children into the digital, virtual world is misguided at best and potentially harmful. I know plenty of grownups who never touched a computer until college age, and now as adults they use computers as tools in their everyday work. In terms of the digital divide in young children’s lives (the gap between who has access, and who doesn’t, and what they are consuming for their “digital diet”), I worry more about access to quality play opportunities, both in school and after school, and access to safe, accessible local playgrounds.

If any of these ideas ring true for you, and you’d like to do something to help keep young children grounded in real-world play and playful learning, I urge you to take some time today to read the latest draft of the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s position statement Technology in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. There is a brief open comment period until May 31st*. I am confounded by the current draft, which continually calls for “developmentally appropriate practices” and acknowledges many of the potential down-sides, yet still advocates strongly for digital technology and interactive media in early childhood settings. I had to laugh (or I would’ve cried) when reading their recommendations for infants and toddlers. “Technology tools that infants and toddlers might use must be safe, sturdy and not easily damaged. Just as toddlers tend to chew on their books, children under 2 are very likely to chew on technology tools.” Is this really the direction we are heading in? Make sure your baby’s iPad is chew/drool-proof?

*Update 12:00 p.m. 5/10/2011: Thanks to Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood for requesting that NAEYC extend the comment period – the deadline is now May 31st. (Formally May 13th.)

“Me Want Daddy iPad”

Geralyn — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:48:21 +0000

Is it just me or does the iPad seem to be on everyone’s mind these days? This morning on NPR’s Morning Edition, the iPad was described as “widely popular”. Yesterday in the NY Times, the article Math that Moves: Schools Embrace the iPad, looked at the advantages of using iPads in the classroom. It seems that many educators are falling for the light weight and portable size, the large touch screen, the wealth of apps and the “coolness” factor. I’ve also heard from educators that the battery-life is fantastic. You can go the whole school day without recharging. I suppose that is an advantage if you are using an iPad at school.

I’m not an expert on iPads, for sure. I don’t own one, and have only played around with them a couple of times. Maybe – just maybe – they might be a great tool for older elementary, middle school or high school students. I can’t say for sure. Maybe they are great for differentiating instruction, as some of the folks in the NY Times article claim, but I have big doubts. I worry whenever a computer replaces a human teacher. Call me old fashioned, but human interaction is a BIG part of how I learn and how I know lots of kids learn.

What I do know, however, is that when I see clusters of kindergartners or preschoolers clamoring to get a view of an iPad, I cringe. I worry when I see them huddle on the rug and looking down at a screen to play a game, instead of looking at each others’ faces. I know that learning how to interpret emotions in yourself and others is a big part of being in kindergarten. It’s really hard to do that, if not impossible, if you spend your time looking at a screen. I know that the actual world is way more important than the virtual world for little ones who are learning about cause and effect and problem solving. I also know that a love of books comes from the social and emotional connections of snuggling with a friend and turning pages, and talking with a teacher about the books he loves, and hearing interactive stories from live human beings who never quite tell the story the same way each time. Reading Winnie-the-Pooh on an iPad just doesn’t have the same tactile and emotional appeal. (I can see the advantage – way down the line. I have an adult friend with allergies. She loves books but hates the mold and dust. She likes the digital option. I get that. But can you really cultivate that love of books digitally?)

Knowing that screen time is habituating, it worries me that children even younger than kindergarteners are spending time with the iPad screen. In fact, I heard a story about a mom who brought her older toddler in for preschool screening. One of the questions that parents had to answer: “Does your child put three or four words together?’ If the parent answers “yes” to this question, they are asked to give an example. One mom said yes, that her child does put words together, and her example was, “Me want Daddy iPad”. So there it is – perhaps the first sentence this little one has put together on his own. “Me want Daddy iPad”. That really worries me. There is a time and a place for the virtual world - and early childhood isn’t it.

Note: For more information about the research on young children and screens, check out this letter written by the folks at Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and Alliance for Childhood, and signed by 80 or so early childhood experts. The letter was sent to NAEYC and the committee on re-drafting their Technology and Young Children Position Statement. It is chock-full of relevant information and research.

Find us at NAEYC’s Annual Conference!

Geralyn — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 20:17:38 +0000

Today I am packing for Anaheim, CA, where I will be joining friends and colleagues at the National Association for the Education of Young Children’s (NAEYC) Annual Conference. I’ll be there with other members of TRUCE (Teachers Resisting Unhealthy Children’s Entertainment) and we will be sharing our resources Media and Young Children Action Guide and Toy, Play & Young Children Action Guide, as well as our recently released Infant-Toddler Play, Toys & Media Action Guide. These fantastic guides help parents and teachers find ways to foster quality play, healthy development and positive relationships- all of which are threatened by companies who are more concerned about making money than about what is best for our children and families. This year, although I am looking forward to re-connecting with advocates for young children, I am not thrilled about the “Disneyfication” of the event. In the pre-conference mailing, I spy a session focused on Walt Disney’s contributions to early childhood education and an evening event to celebrate imagination at Disney’s California Adventure Park. What else will we encounter upon arrival? I am bracing myself.

As a young child I visited Disneyland and watched the Mickey Mouse Club on TV. These were fun times, no doubt. However, Disney has taken advantage of the trust that parents have in the Disney name. As an adult, I now worry about the vast influence that Disney has on our children and on us. Disney encourages young children to play online with websites such as Club Penguin and World of Cars. Disney confuses parents about how babies learn by selling Baby Einstein videos. Check out this list of companies owned by Disney, complied by Lisa Ray. (Her family is documenting their Year Without Disney!) Disney controls so much information – that just cannot be good. They also market heavily and directly to children – including the brilliant move to market all the Disney Princesses together in a way that has appealed to girls the world over. But what messages do the Disney Princesses send our girls? Check out this short video about the Princess Effect from the Empowering Girls to Fly High.

And check out what the updated TRUCE Action Guide says:

If you are one of the tens of thousands who will be attending the conference, please stop by and visit us in the exhibit hall. We will have copies of our free guides on hand and we’d love to talk to you. We’ll be sharing booth 1044 with TRUCE steering committee member Hugh Hanley and his Circle of Song!

Fighting to reclaim kindergarten? Watch this video…then share it!

Geralyn — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:34:54 +0000

One of the best new resources I have seen is a powerful video by the Gesell Institute, The Role of Play in the Overly-Academic Kindergarten. The Gesell Institute of Human Development is a non-profit organization located on the Yale campus. Their seven and half minute video is a clear look at what works in kindergarten – and how the academic push-down in this country, and our focus on raising test scores – has gotten us seriously off track. This resource can help teachers everywhere explain to parents how young children actually learn – through play. Many parents have heard that “earlier is better” and are nervous about “wasting time on play”. For them, learning that research actually supports the long term benefits of play in the classroom will go a long way to alleviating their concerns. September is the month of Open Houses and Back to School Nights at many schools throughout our country. Imagine the potential power that can be unleashed if kindergarten teachers show this video to parents. Imagine if more parents start advocating for playful learning and start putting pressure on administrators and policy makers to return our kindergarten classrooms to kindergarten classrooms (instead of first grades!). The Internet is our powerful friend here, and I urge you to spread the word about this video.

The video can also help parents who are frustrated with their child’s stressful kindergarten experience show their school administrators a better alternative. An Alliance for Childhood report found that teachers and principals in the same school often differed in how they talked about play “…including emphasis, allotment of time, urgency, priority, and degree of conflict with other activities.” Teachers often feel their hands are tied, and while they know their students need more active, hands-on learning, their administrators are pushing worksheets, workbooks and flashcards. Parents can use this video to help push administrators to think about the misguided policies they are imposing.

I know I’ll be sharing it with the leaders in my local school district, whom I have been trying to work with for close to a year now – ever since my sons encountered public school kindergarten. The pendulum needs to swing back toward developmentally appropriate kindergarten. The time has come for it. It needs our help, though, to gain momentum, and this video is a fantastic tool for it. Thank you, Gesell Institute!

Playful learning is more than just Sight Word Bingo

Kinder kindergartens, please

One Teacher’s Story

Radical Preschool

Geralyn — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:54:15 +0000

As young children across the country start a new school year, and teachers across the country set up learning environments for their young students, many early childhood teachers will look to the HighScope Educational Research Foundation for guidance. HighScope is a well-respected, research based approach to early childhood care and education. The well-known Perry Preschool Study showed the long-term benefits of receiving a high-quality preschool program using the HighScope approach. Active Learning is at the center of the HighScope.

From their website:

The HighScope educational approach is based on the belief that young children build or “construct” their knowledge of the world – they are “active learners”. This means learning is not simply a process of adults giving information to children. Rather, children discover things through direct experience with people, objects, events, and ideas. They learn best from pursuing their own interests while being actively supported and challenged by adults.

And:

The space and materials in a HighScope setting are carefully arranged to promote active learning. The center is divided into interest areas organized around specifics kinds of play; for example, block area, house area, small toy area, book area, sand-and-water area, and art area.

Sounds good, right? Sounds great, actually. I agree wholeheartedly with the foundations of the HighScope curriculum, which is why I was shocked and disappointed recently when I read in one of their new resources that “Computers are a ‘must’ in early childhood classrooms.” (Setting Up the Preschool Classroom by Nancy Vogel, p. 81)

WHAT?!? Since when? And says who? Computers are a “must”?!? Not according to over 70 professionals who recently signed a letter to NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children). This letter was written by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood with help from the folks at the Alliance for Childhood.

From the letter:

In the world of medicine, implementation of any medical practice intervention is guided by the principle “Do no harm.” We believe that maxim should guide the use of new technologies in classrooms, particularly since screen time may displace activities with proven benefits for young children such as direct hands-on exploration of the world, connecting with nature and with other human beings, and child-initiated play. Given the vast amount of time that young children are spending with screens and out of child-care settings, and the growing concerns about the impact of screen media on children’s well-being and development, we urge the NAEYC to take a leadership position in efforts to reduce the amount of time children spend with screens and promote the kinds of hands-on creative play proven to be beneficial to their growth and development.

And:

Given that there exists a wealth of screen-free educational activities known to be beneficial to children, and limited data on the costs/benefits of screen media – particular, new media – for young children, we strongly recommend that the burden of proof should be on documenting the benefits of screen media, and on proving they are not harmful, before it is assumed that screens should be incorporated into early childhood environments.

Lisa Guernsey of The New America Foundation is more in favor of computers than those who signed the CCFC’s letter. She has her own letter to NAEYC posted on her blog, Early Ed Watch. But even though Guernsey is more supportive of computers in early childhood settings, she also cites her own warnings and recommendations, and doesn’t agree that computers are now a “must”.

So I ask: why such a strong (and in my opinion, dangerous) statement from HighScope? Believe me, I am trying to find out.

And consider the e-mail I received recently, with the message line reading “Here is your Digital Kindergarten”. The pitch letter started out like this:

Please enjoy this Digital Sample Digital Mini-Text for your students. Complete Curriculum publishes dynamic K-12 digital textbooks and highly-interactive web-based instructional programs that make learning fun and “cool” for today’s whiz kids who eat, breathe, and sleep technology. Our groundbreaking format takes students out of the dull world of traditional print textbooks and transports them into the exciting world of interactive textbooks and lesson plans where learning becomes fun.

Uggh! So now we have a digital alternative to the “dull” world of print textbooks. Hmm, here’s a radical idea: how about letting our students interact with the world around them?! Play with real people and real open-ended materials? Explore nature, art materials, building materials and actual books?! Could the real world be an alternative to the “dull world” of print textbooks? To paraphrase Free-Range Kids author Lenore Skenazy, when did the preschool/kindergarten we grew up with become so radical?

You can help protect preschoolers from too much screen-time!

Geralyn — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:49:11 +0000

I am in the joyful and exhausting throes of “Cousins’ Camp” (this year we have 15 first cousins, ages 4-13!) and don’t have time for a long post. But I felt compelled to let everyone know about an important window of opportunity to advocate for our youngest children. Currently NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) is re-drafting their position statement on Technology and Young Children. NAEYC is at the forefront of early childhood education. Just to give you an idea of their influence, their Annual Conference draws more than 20,000 early childhood teachers, administrators, professors and others. Lots of people pay attention to what NAEYC has to say. Right now we have a unique opportunity to have input on their statement – and help steer NAEYC in the right direction in limiting screen-time in daycare centers, preschools and other early childhood settings. In a brilliant move, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood has teamed up with the Alliance for Childhood to draft a letter to NAEYC – signed by over 70 early childhood experts. Please visit CCFC’s website today to read their letter to NAEYC and for a wealth of information about this topic. Then you can contact NAEYC yourself. The window of opportunity closes July 30, 2010, so I urge you to act soon and to spread the word! Thanks so much.

Defending dirt and Playing for Keeps

Geralyn — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:39:02 +0000

The other day my kids were playing in the mud with their cousins. We were replanting some lilac shoots from a very special family bush. While I was thinking about the significance of this 1oo+ year-old family heirloom, the kids were busy stomping in the mud and muck. I didn’t get upset with them – in fact I encouraged them. “Go ahead!” I said. “Get dirty. I just read about a new study that says playing outside in the dirt may actually make you smarter!” The kids giggled at this and started asking each other, “Are you smarter now?” and answering,”Yes! E equals m c squared!” I laughed, with them, but I am quite happy to have this new research in my arsenal in the fight to keep play in our children’s lives. So, the next time your little ones come in the house all grubby from making mud pies or digging to China, rest easy knowing that playing in the dirt has been shown to lower depression, lesson anxiety and now…make you smarter!

You see, back in May, Science Daily reported: “Exposure to specific bacteria in the environment, already believed to have antidepressant qualities, could increase learning behavior, according to research presented at the 110th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in San Diego.” Read the whole story here.

The researches found the effects were temporary, which means repeated exposure is good. Their research helps the growing movement of outdoor classrooms, school yard gardens and bringing kids (and all of us) back outside. Personally, I know that when I am stressed, time outdoors always helps. I’ve known babies who would stop crying and fussing when they were brought outdoors. I can relate because I am the same way. As a teacher, I always knew that time outside in nature was good for kids – especially as television, video games and the internet were keeping them more and more inside. I wrote more about nature and education in this article, “We Need More Sticks and Grass! We Need More Beauty!” .

Now, having evidence that being outside in nature can actually increase learning behavior – this is the icing on the cake. “This research suggests that M. vaccae may play a role in anxiety and learning in mammals,” says Matthews. “It is interesting to speculate that creating learning environments in schools that include time in the outdoors where M. vaccae is present may decrease anxiety and improve the ability to learn new tasks.”

Looking for more evidence that time spent outdoors is good for our children? Here’s more. There’s a terrific new book just published by Teachers College Press. It is called Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground, by Deborah Meier, Brenda S. Engel and Beth Taylor. The book comes at just the right time, when parents and teachers are looking for ways to convince principals and policy makers that recess is a necessary and valuable part of the school day. The book is written about the early years at the Mission Hill School in Boston, a school that I am proud to have helped start and then teach at for eleven years. The authors are all incredibly talented teachers and mentors, who helped me learn how to closely observe children and the deep importance of active learning. It is from these women that I learned much of what I know about being a good teacher.

From the introduction, “We invite readers to appreciate the life of the imagination on the playground, to see the energy children bring to exploring their social and physical surrounds, and to share with us the children’s delight in active learning.”

If your children are outside – playing, living, laughing, learning and getting dirty – these two new bodies of evidence help confirm what you already know. If your children are inside more than you like, and you are advocating for recess, struggling to bring a garden to your school yard or working to bring more outdoor recreation spaces into your community, now you have two new powerful weapons in your arsenal. Excellent.