Play Under Siege

From the book, Free to Learn by Lynne Oldfield:

"Play Under Siege

Childhood without play seems inconceivable....or does it?
Adults work..children play...or do they?

Inappropriate early childhood practice in the form of a downward thrust of literacy and numeracy performance and assessment continues relentlessly to erode the boundaries of early childhood. Five year olds are expected to perform as six year olds had previously performed, and four year olds are met with the challenges previously presented to five year olds.

Parents frequently describe their four and five year olds as 'coping' rather than 'flourishing' in the early years of school experience. One significant sacrifice to this trend is the child's access to the world of creative play. The willingness of educational policy makers to dismantle and undermine this activity is due, in part, to a rapidly disappearing understanding of the nature of play and its contribution to later achievements and developments.

Once upon a time...Let's pretend...You be....and I'll be....With these words children take a step into a world without boundaries, rich with potential learning opportunities, and an essential stage in their development. Observe children play. Watch and listen. Be prepared to be astounded by what you will see and hear.

The child's need to play must first be acknowledged. The adult's work presents itself from "outside"; the child's play arises from 'within' as an impulse to integrate her experiences. The child needs his will-reaction, his play, in order to assimilate his experiences and make them fully his own.

Here is an example. The older brother of a four year old girl had died. The day after the funeral she began to make a mound of blankets and pillows into which she burrowed. These were the 'clouds' and she was going in 'to bring her Jacob back'. Teachers working in areas of deprivation - war torn environments - will observe children literally 'playing out' their anxieties, with a corresponding easing up of tension as they come to terms with their situation through the activity of play. Play therapy is a standard practice for professionals working with abused children. When a child is unwell, play activity will cease; its return will signal that the child is well again.

A child at play is a child at peace.

Children are also dreamers. There is something almost spiritual in the imagination of a child, who picks up bits and pieces of its surroundings and its memory and finds out how they fit together in a slow, dreamlike process of discovery. They don't do this playing a computer game. They do this when they are allowed to sink down into themselves...they do it when they have time. Time is what we have taken away from our children.

Misunderstanding the Nature of Play

The inner source of play decisively undermines a growing contemporary trend toward 'structured play' in early childhood settings. This concept of directing play from 'outside', with an imposed intention - for example, to develop a concept of the number 5 through the use of five teddy-bears having a picnic - fails in any way to meet the true definition of play, which must by its very nature, arise from within the child and have no purpose other than to satisfy the original impulse. This impulse might arise from the need to 're-play' the image of men laying water pipes, or to come to terms with abuse. It might arise from the need to 're-live' a fairy tale told by the teacher - or simply, once again, to experience the joy and intensity of 'the love of action'. For play is also a will activity and a further revelation of the extent to which young children are impressed by their environment; for it is also an act of imitation."


This chapter will be be included in its entirety within the next week.

Everyone is healthy and we need raingear!

We have seen a great improvement in everyone's health lately and I just want to encourage you to use this time to be even more vigilant in your efforts to boost immunity. THIS is the time to take it a notch higher so that your little ones will be more prepared the next time a little bug comes our way. Be consistent with cod liver oil on a daily basis. It is very simple to add this to cereals, yogurt, smoothies, etc. and make sure there is one tablespoon in the first few bites of a meal. Nordic Naturals is a very dependable company and can be found at Mama Jeans market. Keep all sugar out of the children's diets if you are not already doing this and eat lots of GREEN foods every day. Again, this is easy to mix into smoothies. Another fun thing is to make your own popsicles using vegetable and fruit juices mixed together in a juicer or processor. These steps will really help form a protective barrier that will be quite strong by the time next fall and winter roll around and your efforts will reap great benefits. Remember, when just one child comes here with an illness, even if it's just a cold, it impacts everyone.....parents included. It is important that we all work together on this.

It has been very rainy lately and clothes, socks, shoes, etc. are getting very wet and muddy.
We go out in the morning and again in the afternoon and when there is only one change of clothes available this is not enough if we get wet and muddy both times.
If it is possible, your child needs a full rain suit here at all times. That includes rainboots, rain pants, raincoat and a hat or hood made of same rainproof material. This will help us avoid a huge wet and muddy mess with wet and muddy clothes piling up by the back door.
I will post possible resources for these items in a future post. I know that Hanna Anderson has good raincoats and boots. A place like Target may also have these things. Let others know if you have found a great place to find the raingear as well. Post a comment here anytime to suggest ideas that have worked for you. I want this to be a place where we can "gather" and communicate.

We are hard at work digging out a sand area in the backyard and the children are really enjoying the new discoveries of shoveling, finding worms, rolly poly bugs, and other little creatures.

The books we have been reading are centering around gardening, seeds, and vegetables.
A few of the titles we have enjoyed are:

Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert
Carrot Soup by John Segal
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming
One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge
Dahlia by Barbara McClintock
To Be Like the Sun by Susan Marie Swanson
Zen Ties by Jon J Muth
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
It's Spring by Linda Glaser
Spring Song by Barbara Seuling
And the Good Brown Earth by Kathy Henderson
A Gardener's Alphabet by Mary Azarian
Mrs. Rose's Garden by Elaine Greenstein

Thankyou to Sierra and Amy for bringing in several new puzzles to share with everyone. The children are really enjoying these!

Thankyou also to Finn, Jason, and Jennifer for giving us many clay pots to use in our upcoming planting projects!

Donations are always gladly accepted and greatly appreciated. Old small tools, buckets, shovels, cut up "tree blocks" from thick branches, baskets of every kind, scarves, hats, necklaces, sandpaper, etc. are some of the ideas I have at the moment. The children love carrying things in baskets, loading them up, and doing various types of activities with them.
I will post items weekly for new ideas.

MayPole Festival

The date for the MayPole Festival is Saturday, May 30th from 3 - 5.
I wrote it wrong on the previous post.
It's the Saturday after Memorial Day.
Hope to see everyone!

Welcome to Sophie

We welcome our newest playmate, Sophie.
She is 4 1/2 and joined us this week. Staying for the remainder of the spring semester, Sophie has already started helping us prepare for our garden and sand area....a very earnest worker with the shovel and a delight to have with the children.
It is always a joy to see how the older ones, such as Aubrey, Katie, and now Sophie, will naturally extend a willing hand of help to the younger children. What a gift to have a mixed aged group where each child enriches the lives of the others.
Everyone is enjoying the warmer temperatures and there is this wonderful, calm, settled sense among us. There is a lot of purposeful work going on in the yard with quiet focus and excited discoveries.....worms, mud, sprouting plants, and roly poly bugs

If you haven't already, please make sure to include good sun hats and sunscreen every day. It might even be a good idea to apply the sunscreen before you head over here because there are many mornings that we are starting our day outside.

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and Yellow is the Sun have been two of our current stories among many others about spring, gardens, and bugs and we have been painting and working with the color yellow.

Keep the family photos coming in! We are using them for a variety of projects.
Photos of your house, extended family members, pets, and anything else that your child would recognize are all great ideas.

Do you have any way to obtain tree stumps, large branches, big boulder type rocks, etc?
We are looking for a border for our sand area and help in putting this together.
Also, if you can donate any time or resources for our vegetable garden we ultimately would like this to be a group experience for the children where they can see the adults in their life working together to make their play space a beautiful, healthy, and living area.

Our May Day festival will be Saturday, May 30 from 3 until 5.
Join us for a traditional MayPole dance, singing, games, and food.
Bring your favorite food to share.

Love and peace to all of you!

Rain, Chili, Bubbles, and Playdough

We played outside this morning from 9 until noon and even felt some fresh rain sprinkles on our faces! Experimented with wet chalk, rolled little cars down wooden ramps, and walked along a stone path that the children made. They have been interested in balancing, rolling hoops across the grass, watching the birds at the feeders and having tea parties in the cozy corner of the yard.
Today is usually soup day, however, we made vegetarian chili...organic kidney, garbanzo, and black beans, celery, tomatoes, and corn seasoned with oregano and basil. Eaten with our leftover homemade rye bread from yesterday. A good day for a warm lunch...

Strawberry Shortcake Day

Strawberry Shortcake day was a success and a fun way to wrap up our study of all things RED.
We colored strawberry shapes, had a strawberry hunt to find hidden paper strawberries around the room, played with red play dough, read stories about this delicious fruit, and made our own strawberry shortcake....it was delicious and enthusiastically eaten by all.

SPRING IS COMING

Spring is coming
Spring is coming
Birdies build your nests
Sticks and feathers
All together
Each one do your best

Spring is coming
Spring is coming
Flowers are coming too
Roses, Lillies, Daffodilly's
All come shining through

Mornings are filled with the excitement and anticipation of the coming Spring
Our circle times are joyous with new songs about flowers, gardens, sprouting seeds, warmer weather, and baby animals.

We will gather the families together again soon when weather and health have stabilized a bit.
This past week I have included important information in your child's bag regarding Community Supported Agriculture, a good foods list, and a refreshing article about television and the young child. I hope you will find these inspiring and helpful. It is crucial that we all work together to make sure our little ones are getting the right immunity building nutrients to keep us all as healthy as possible. This is a group effort and I am here to work with you to provide the best possible environment for your children. Please let me know if there is anything else I can be doing to help in any way.
With joy and love I wish you all a peaceful weekend.