WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Every child deserves time.  Time to play, space to play, open-ended materials to explore, and friends to play with!  They need time to develop their imaginations, bodies, and creativity.  Play is not a luxury or a spectator sport!  Play can build childhood memories of JOY, DELIGHT, RELATIONSHIPS, and FUN!  Memories that will serve them well as they travel through their lives!

As I wrote this article I was reminded of this quote:

            People don’t stop playing because they grow old.
            They grow old because they stop playing!

Maybe we, too, need to play a little more and do things that bring us joy and make us happy

References:

Armstrong, Thomas.  Early childhood education programs:  play.  ascd.ort/publications/books/106044/chapters/Early-Childhood-Education-Programs.

Brown, Stuart.  (2009).  Play:  how it shapes the brain.  Penguin Books:  New York.

Dewar, Gwen.  (2008).  The cognitive benefits of play:  effects on the learning brain.  parentingscience.com/benefits-of-play.

Elkind, David.  (2007).  The power of play:  how spontaneous, imaginative activities lead to happier, healthier children.  Cambridge, MA:  Da Capo Press

 

 

Ginsburg, Kenneth.  (2007).  The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong pare-child bonds.  Pediatrics 2007; 119;182.

Hannaford, Carla.  (2005).  Smart moves:  why learning is not all in your head.  Salt Lake City:  Great River Books.

Jensen, Eric.   (2005).  Teaching with the brain in mind.  Alexandria, VA:  ASCD.

Louv, Richard. (2005).  Last child in the woods.   Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books.

Miller, Edward, and Almon, Joan.  (2009)  Crisis in the kindergarten:  why children need to play in school.  College Park, MD:  Alliance for Childhood.

Ratey, John.  (2008).  Spark:  the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain.  New York:  Little Brown and Company.

Web Resources

Alliance for Childhood - Kindergarten Report (pdf)

NAEYC

National Institute for Play

IPA  (American Association for the Child’s Right to Play)

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