Article Link: http://stage.exchangepress.com/article/so-much-more-than-nothing-translating-play-based-learning-for-our-families/5025148/
*Additional photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
It is 3:30 p.m. and preschool has just ended. My three-year-old son cheerfully waves goodbye to his teachers and classmates and we leave the playground. As I buckle him into his car seat, I ask the question piquing every parent’s curiosity, “What did you do in school today?”
Inevitably, the answer is always the same.
“Nothing.”
As the work day comes to an end and parents across the country pick up their children from school or child care, this same scene plays out over and over again. Occasionally, when we are lucky, we might hear, “played.” But, as every early childhood educator knows, so much more happened over the course of the day. That very day, children were scientists at the sand and water table, engineers in the block area, authors in the writing area, and mathematicians in the toy area. “Played” is too vague a description and “nothing” is far from the truth.
Fortunately, early childhood educators have an opportunity to change this script. The National Association for Family, School and Community Engagement describes the process of engaging families as a shared responsibility; when families are ...