News
New grants awarded:
The Play Matters Board of Directors met in November and December 2006 and awarded grants to the Mar Vista Family Center and St. Anne’s Early Learning Center, both in the greater Los Angeles area.
Cookies and conversation with key players in Play Matters projects:
Judie Fouquette, April Wright, Marilyn McGrath, and Ruth Beaglehole, four key players in current Play Matters projects, joined the Board on a sunny day in Docia's garden to discuss their projects and share ideas for future Play Matters ventures.
Judie Fouquette, Stand for Children; Rose Honda, Board;
April Wright, the St. Joseph Center; Janis Minton and Betsy Hiteshew, Board
Marilyn McGrath, Santa Monica College
Insights:
- Talking to adults about the value of play is not enough; they must experience it first hand to really understand its importance.
- Adults may not remember their own childhood play as “learning;” instead, they may think of splashing in puddles, making blanket tents, or swinging simply as “growing up.”
- Adults feel tremendous pressure to get children ready for “school;” challenging the “testing” paradigm means translating what happens in play in ways that really connect with parents and administrators; bringing parents and children together to play is a good way to do this.
Betsy, Ruth, Janis, Rose, Judie, Docia, and April
Ruth Beaglehole, Center for for Non-Violent Parenting and Education
Needed:
- Technical assistance for teachers and caregivers in becoming excellent play facilitators
- Much more dialogue with parents, and help in articulating to parents and administrators what children learn as they play and how it relates to school readiness
- School readiness trainers that understand how play is connected to school tasks
- A really good documentary on play and/or video clips on play that reach parents
NAEYC 2004:
Insights:
- Play is deeply satisfying and enjoyable
- Play provides satisfaction and pride in creation, pleasurable enjoyment with friends, anxiety in new situations, delight in overcoming fear, joy in undisturbed activity, frustration and disappointment if interrupted
- Different types of play creates different moods, challenges and satisfactions.
- Skillful facilitation (structuring, explaining, coaching, encouraging, helping) is crucial.
Take-home messages to advocate convincingly for children's play:
- Become articulate yourself by reading such books as "The Roots of Reading" (Zigler, Singer, Bishop-Josef), "The Play's the Thing" (Jones and Reynolds), etc.
- Carefully craft and memorize short, sound-bite length responses to such questions as, "Aren't they just playing?"
- Conduct play-based learning opportunities similar to this Play Matters session, for parents, teachers and policy makers.
- Post photos and simple lists on bulletin boards and in play areas describing what children are doing and learning