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.

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The uplifting experience with the kayak on the pond was in sharp contrast to the virtual kayaking the boys had tried about a week earlier. This time, we were visiting another set of friends. The boys had great time swimming in the backyard pool for hours. After a while, though, one of them asked to play the Wii. It isn’t something my boys get to do very often, so they were excited. One of the games they tried was Wii Kayaking. And my goodness, when I say the mood changed at this happy gathering, the mood CHANGED at this happy gathering. Neither of my sons could get the hang of kayaking with the remote control. When someone tried to show how to do it, my sons wouldn’t be coached. They weren’t open to getting help, they didn’t want to let go of the remote and risk losing their turn. One of my sons actually started crying, stomping has feet and yelling in frustration. It was an unattractive side of him, and I wasn’t happy. For him, the experience left him feeling inadequate, disappointed and extremely frustrated. The stress level in the room was high – much different from the relaxed atmosphere we’d had outside at the pool.

Real versus virtual. It has been a recurring theme this summer.  Back in June, a friend of mine told me a story about a presentation he attended.  The subject was technology in the early childhood classroom.  One of the presenters shared an anecdote to help underscore how fabulous our new handheld, digital technology is.

The story goes something like this: One day, a young toddler was running around the kitchen table holding an iPad. The child was saying, “Mommy: cow!” and his mother was able to quickly search and pull up a picture of a cow- and how wonderful it was that the child was able to see a real cow!

Did you catch that? A real cow.  Actually, no, that wasn’t a real cow. A real cow is a gorgeous and often smelly creature. It has smooth hair, a rough tongue, hard hooves and a tail that swats whatever might be in the way. What is especially distressing about the “real cow” story is that the presentation was given by the folks who are crafting the new National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) position statement on technology and young children. It appears that they are so head-over-heels in love with digital technology, and so immersed in the virtual world, that a digital picture of a cow on a small hand-held device has now become a “real cow”.  The current draft of the position statement includes this statement: Early childhood programs have an obligation to use technology to bridge the digital divide.  As I read that I cringe and can’t help but wonder… As we slide along the slippery slope between what is real and what is virtual, how will this affect our brain development? Our relationships with each other? Our relationship with nature?

How long until kayaking on an actual pond -with breezes blowing and frogs croaking – becomes a thing of the past? And what will we lose along the way?

In the Orion Magazine (September/October 2007) article Unplugged Schools, Lowell Monke wrote:

“The health of our children’s inner lives, their civic engagement, and their relationship with nature all would be improved if schools turned down the thermostat on that technologically overheated aspect of American culture. Schools dedicated to that task—we might call them ‘unplugged schools’—would identify the values associated with technological culture and design curricula and an environment focused on strengthening the human values at the other end of the scale.

“The most obvious thing schools can do in this regard is give children experiences with the real things toward which symbols are only dim pointers. Unless emotionally connected to some direct experience with the world, symbols reach kids as merely arbitrary bits of data. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but to a second grader who has held a squiggly nightcrawler in her hand, even the printed symbol “worm” resonates with far deeper meaning than a thousand pictures or a dozen Discovery Channel videos.”

I love that passage, because he states so beautifully what I often think about.  I feel the visceral connection that second grader has to the printed symbol “worm” and am thankful. I want my children, and my students, to have as many authentic experiences as possible before they are submerged in that virtual world.

(By the way, this is a picture of a real cow. This cow lives at The Farm School, in Athol, Massachusetts, and I took the photo on our annual trip with my students from Mission Hill School. Every student visits the farm every year, and the older students sleep over for a few nights. On the farm, they feed real cows, hold real chickens, cut real fire wood with real saws and experience a multitude of authentic experiences.)

Here are some related blog posts:

Is your baby’s iPad drool-proof?

“Me want daddy iPad!”

Radical Preschool

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For one thing, you have have a flexible structure for them to work within. Setting the parameters, and giving choices within them, goes a long way in keeping everyone actively engaged. Second, you find materials and experiences that are open-ended and usually quite simple. Think natural materials such as water, sand and wooden blocks; and art materials such as  finger paints, paper, crayons, markers and clay. Nothing fancy or gimmicky here,  and definitely no batteries required.  Of course, what a 4 year-old and 13 year-old chose to do with blocks, sand, clay or finger paints will vary. Their methods, attention span and ability to coordinate their play with others will look very different, but isn’t that the beauty of open-ended materials? In these instances, the child is in charge of deciding the how and the what; the grown ups are there just to provide the materials, the time and the space.

“Quiet Time” in the afternoons gave us all a chance to relax, take a deep breath and entertain ourselves individually. Within the “Quiet Time” framework older campers read novels and wrote in their journals; younger campers read or looked at books and drew pictures; and our youngest campers took their afternoon nap. And singing was something we did daily together – with lots of songs that have become family favorites – including call and response songs which everyone (including the youngest non-readers) can enjoy. Our oldest camper even taught the rest of us a new song – now a favorite – which we will add to our growing songbook.

But there is one more crucial ingredient – interesting adults.  This year, we had a rotating list of aunts and uncle who came and shared their interests, time and talents with the kids. One of my brothers, a former art teacher, made paper with the campers. Another brother is a talented musician, and he joined us with his guitar for some of our singing sessions. My sister came one day and shared her talents in the kitchen to help our campers make lunch and snack for that day.  Launching rockets, starting a campfire, pitching a tent, telling a funny story, performing a skit…so many interesting grown ups spending time with the campers…sharing laughter and love and making memories.

So, how do you keep kids engaged? Open-ended and simple materials. Flexible structure. Quality time spent with interesting  and caring adults.  These make for a fantastic summer camp experience. And you know what…pretty great for school, too. I remember times in my second and third grade classroom at Mission Hill School – when things were feeling stressful and unproductive, and our insightful principal Deb Meier would say to me, “What about making the classroom feel more like summer camp?”  That question would help me tweak my routine, materials and attitude in a way that could get us back on track – and making it fun for all ages.

See a related post: KEVA planks – creating fun for everyone

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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.

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Play is good for learning how to trust oneself – which is part of learning how and when to trust the world. Repetition, doing things over and over is essential for learning; but only happens enough when it’s also fun – playful. Play is essential for developing one’s imagination – thinking outside the box is at the heart of play. And empathy – stepping into the shoes of others – is central to both childhood and adult pretend play. In fact, one can see all the Habits of Mind when watching young children at play.

At Mission Hill we will not give up play; and not just for the little ones. The spirit of play is central to good learning at all ages – in and out of school. Play and work are not polar opposites – they go hand in hand. Good workmanship thrives in a setting in which children’s standards grow out of their own initiative; their own task setting; in short, from play. It takes those same four qualities underlined above to produce a masterpiece. We don’t intend to let the pressure for early test success destroy what counts in the long run. It’s good for your kids, for our school, for America, and maybe even the whole wide world.

Last night I had the privilege and pleasure of helping to honor the very first Deborah W. Meier Hero in Education award presented by FairTest http://www.fairtest.org/at the Urban Academy at the Julia Richman Edcation Complex in New York City. This time, the award went to Debbie herself. Thank you, Debbie, for touching so many lives in such a powerful way. And thanks, in particular, for bringing out my inner troublemaker.

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The current downturn in the economy may lead to an upturn in family fun. “Family Game Nights” are finding a resurgence around the country as families look for more affordable means of entertainment. Some families are opting for Nintendo or Wii nights, and admittedly they can be fun, but I’m advocating remote-control-free Family Game Nights. Family Game Night-unplugged, if you will.

Try going low-tech and teaching your children (or grandchildren) card games from when you were young. They will love it! Or, dust off any board games you have tucked away in a closet somewhere. If you have a wide range of ages and abilities, or if competition isn’t fun for your family, try playing Jenga (the tumbling wooden tower game) together. Instead of having a “losers” and “winners” you can work together to see how high the tower can get. Keep track and try to break your family record. Or invite another family over for an old fashioned game of charades. The point is to hang out and spend time talking and laughing together – and grown ups need to play, too!

BTW, if you are a teacher or parent council leader, consider hosting a Family Game Night at your own school. They have been a hit at Mission Hill School, where I taught for 11 years. You can read about it, and other ideas to support families, click here.

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