A Note of Thanks and Support

          First I would like to begin with a huge CONGRATULATIONS to all of my classmates who made it through our Internship. There was a lot of work and we did it! Second, I would like to thank all of the followers who have read and responded to my blogs and also my discussions in class. It took a lot of feedback from colleagues to make sure I could my topic narrowed and on track for my research paper. And third, I would like to wish everyone good luck for the future and keep on pushing and advocating for what you think is right!

THANK YOU!

What is the real issue to advocate for?

          I am filled with a lot of information about how young children play, why they play, and the importance of play. I believe in advocating for play in young children's learning environment, but I am unsure how this looks. After spending a lot of time talking with the parents who engaged in a kindergarten assessment and then making a decision about sending their child to kindergarten or not leaves me wondering what the real issue is to advocate for. Five separate families who participated in what is called the Gesell Assessment for kindergarten readiness were recommended to wait another year before sending their child on to kindergarten. Three of these families decided to enroll their child anyways. When I discussed their decisions with them, I found many excuses were made because of the parents, not the children. One mother mentioned that if she felt it wasn't working for her child she would just bring her back to preschool. The reason she is going is because the mother wants to do substitute work in the mornings. Another family shared they didn't want their child to be the oldest one in his class when he graduated. They were afraid he would be bored in high school and not do well because of being "too old." And the third family told me it was because they could repeat kindergarten if they really needed too. So what is the real advocacy needed for being ready to achieve academic success in kindergarten?

          What I have gained as insights is the need for the focus to be more on educating the parents about the real expectations in schools and the consequences that may happen when your child is not fully confident to engage in their grade. And to make clear what "play" is for young children. Adults see play as recreational, whereas, young children need it to learn many concepts and academics. I feel like I have opened more doors than I can walk in and struggle with putting all of the information and input into a research paper that will effectively argue the point I want to make. What advocacy issue do you feel is the one needing to be made clear?

Administrator Insights & Advocacy

          Spending time with the director, who is a "working" director, which means she also teaches in the classroom, displayed the level of play needed in an early childhood program and how it works with young children in learning. The atmosphere is comfortable, busy, fun, inquisitive, welcoming, loving, inclusive, and engaging. And all of this is contributed to the main learning method of play. Interviewing and talking about about how play is used in the classroom proved to be all I believe in. The director, the lead teachers, and the teachers all shared how they have become more intentional with using play to foster concepts for learning. This is right on with where I am leaning in researching and advocating. They shared the need to educate the community and the parents in understanding how play is used and how it is essential to teach young children.
          The conflict is about what use to be kindergarten and what it is now. Most educators see it as as first grade rather than kindergarten. The director also shared her concerns about this change. First, kindergarten is still not a requirement to take before entering elementary school. Second, it is no longer about introducing young children to the educational system. And third, the pressures to read and perform other academics is developmentally inappropriate for the age and stages the children allowed to come into kindergarten are. They feel its a transition with all of the standards as well as the understanding from parents who is causing the high increase in young children repeating kindergarten.
          It feels like we are in a cyclone of transition with the demands in kindergarten and what is developmentally appropriate. Again, I am wondering exactly what to research as far as play and kindergarten readiness. One of the parents shared with me about how they are sad to see their time with the early childhood program come to an end. They have two older children and have been through kindergarten already and feel for their youngest because of how he has grown and learned through all of the play he has engaged in at preschool. They are a little worried, yet they know he is of age and needs to go on. I am not sure what to think of this but will set up a time to interview this family for my research. Do you think that would be helpful?

Are they really playing?

     In the field setting I am observing in, there are three teachers and two aides for twenty-one students who range from 2 1/2 years old to 4 years old. The class is designed for three years old turning four years old during the time school runs, which is September through May. The program is a play-based program and is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., depending on how old the student is and where they are developmentally. Students are broken down into a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday class called the butterfly's, which are 4 year olds turning 5 years old with a slightly older class called Pre-K, and a Tuesday and Thursday class called the ladybug's, which are the ones described in the beginning of this blog. I interacted with the teachers, the aides, the director, and the students during the observations.
     I do not know where to begin in describing what I observed. First, the place was huge with an amazing amount of rooms to do a variety of activities as well as just changing environments to help those students who need to be redirected. Second, the routine and the activities seemed to flow smoothly and play was intentional. I have not thought about play being intentional while the students are engaged in the activities. The activities were theme based and the added materials were also theme based. For example, there were farmers hats in the dramatic play area and the block area, they had toy farms with the animals to go with it in the middle of the main room, farm puzzles, farm animal puppets, farm cutters for the play dough, farm stamps, stuffed farm animals all around, and several books available. The directed activity was making a handprint chick, holding real baby chicks, and looking for farm animal manipulatives in a tub of beans. When I asked the teachers about the set-up and the materials available around the room, they shared a few clever insights. One teacher told me "Play is how young children learn because they are involved in doing something and they also engage in what interests them. When they are interested they will be able to remember and grab hold of concepts that is intentionally being introduced through the materials around the room." This was an ah-ha moment for me because I thought to myself are they really playing or are they doing activities to learn. Both is happening and both happens  simultaneously. You can't have one without the other, even adults do this.
     Can this be a topic for my research paper on play in young children? That is the topic of intentional play instead of play and the development of young children? What do you think?

Not Surprising/Surprising - Professional Interviews (Initial Post)

I was not surprised about the information I received through two interviews in a local early childhood program about the need to advocate for play as the means for learning in a developmentally appropriate way. One insight I gained from one of the professionals that was not surprising was how parents and families do not understand the purpose of play and some even see it as a waste of time in an early childhood educational program. This has been a topic of discussion with several families when they pay tuition for their child in a program about being developmentally educational. A second insight I gained through the other professional I interviewed came as a surprising statement. She referred to higher expectation in academics in the early grades as "cheating our children out of their time of play by cutting it short because the pressure is on to perform academically (Kay, 2011)." 

I was encouraged to hear about the advocacy efforts in place from the two interviews. First was hearing the instructors at the local community college teaching Early Childhood Education classes were advocating for play in the centers. Second was hearing about one director at a local preschool program blogging about parental fears and myths along with practical solutions to understand it all. And third, the local school district launched a program being funded by First 5 to collect exit interviews and inventories of preschool children who are entering into kindergarten for that district. The purpose is to see if these children are up to the new expectations of school success. 

Listening to the two professionals about play encouraged me seek this as the main topic for my research paper. I could hear frustration, passion, and desire to change things about sharing the benefits of play. Since there are already pre-existing attitudes and perspectives about play in young children, the challenge will be to change them so they are about play as the means to learning in academics and development. 

Play is a huge topic. Is this appropriate for an advocacy research paper and then action plan? Is it too vague? And what would be some related issues?