Can you think of the name of this preschool learning philosophy?

Question

My four year old's preschool is "learning through play" focused, with no attention to printing letters or learning to read. The main idea is, the children do directed play at centers, and the centers are fine-motor skills, pretend play, housekeeping, puzzles, painting/playdough, trucks and cars, etc.

Some of the parents are complaining that their son or daughter is not going to be ready for kindergarten. My thoughts are, that is the way kindergarten used to be. Now all the poor babies have to be reading and writing BEFORE they go to kindergarten???

What is the name of this philosophy? I want to research it on the web or library.

Answer 1

Montessori

Answer 2

It's not a particular curriculum,but programs that use this approach usually embrace the teachings of Jean Piaget. One curriculum that follows this is High Scope, another is the Creative Curriculum. A good program that follows this approach gives kids access to lots of reading and writing materials and encourages any interest the child has in those things and also uses teachable moments to reinforce Early Literacy concepts. There are lots of labels, the children are offered opportunities to see their words in writing and there are many opportunities to read and be read to. Programs such as this also understand that it is easier for children to write if they have first had lots of chances to develop eye-hand coordination through play, and easier for them to learn to read if they have worked with materials such as puzzles to develop visual memory, learned lots of nursery rhymes to develop listening and rhyming skills, and have developed a great vocabulary because they have had a variety of experiences.

Congratulations for not giving in to the really terrible trend to turn preschool into boot camp and kindergarten into a pressure cooker. Your child will probably arrive at kindergarten eager to learn new things , having a great vocabulary,and knowing how to behave as a member of the group.

Answer 3

Montessori is a very specific variant on this, and you haven't mentioned any of the specifics. You'd know if it was a Montessori preschool.

I've seen this just called "learning through play" in the UK. It's the most common philosophy for preschools here.

Answer 4

Research info on the schools of Reggio Emilia,  Waldorf,  montessori,  child centered,  books by vivian gussy Paley I agree that we do not need to be pressuring kids to be so prepared for Kindergarten.  I taught at a school with similar philosophy to the one your child is going to,  statistics showed that most of these children learned to read very quickly.  No more delays than children from other preschools

Answer 5

Montessori formed her own ideas about early childhood education. She felt that children under the age of six have the most powerful and receptive minds and this gives them a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to learn. The Montessori method encourages children to learn about the world around them through exploration. They are given the freedom to move around, to touch and manipulate. She developed a number of ‘educational toys’ and activities to support this process. The equipment/activities were designed to help the child acquire skills, competence & confidence.

Montessori also placed emphasis on the development of social skills, and this took precedence over early reading & writing skills.  Her methods have been used in schools all around the world.

A Montessori teacher never interferes with play or corrects a child; the teacher assesses a child and presents a suitable piece of equipment (graded activities). If the child is able to use it correctly, it has been presented at the right time, but if the child is not yet ready to use it, the teacher will put the equipment away for another day.

Answer 6

Play-focused, or "Developmentally Appropriate Practice" activities ARE getting children ready for kindergarten!!  All the things you mentioned are things that will set them up for future success!  Parents get so overly concerned that because their child is not bringing home ditto sheets with letters and numbers on them that they are not learning these things at school!  Calm down!  They are learning more than you think!  

-Dramatic play: they are learning about social roles.  How do they fit in in a group, how to cooperate with one another, how to solve social problems (sharing, turn-taking) that are critical to social survival in school.

-Puzzles: space concepts that are pre-math skills.

-Counter pieces: being able to correspond a number to an amount (the number 2 means two items)- pre-math

-Playdough: gets the fingers and hand muscles strength to be able to appropriately hold a pencil.

-Writing center: paper/pencils/crayons/markers that allow a child to pretend to write letters.  Some include a mail center so that children can "write" letters to each other.  Pretending to write, making crude letter symbols and practice tracing encourage writing.  You may also see children's work with dictation on it where the staff wrote what the child said about their picture/painting... this is also a pre-writing skill- to see that what they say has meaning in letters.

-Painting: crossing midline (critical for reading skills), developing hand-eye coordination.

-Stringing beads/manipulatives: fine motor skills that prepare a child for the fine motor of writing

-Recognizing shapes: spatial skills (pre-math) and recognition of a symbol (pre-reading)

-Playing with trucks and cars: social skills; if they are also using blocks to stack: pre-math spatial awareness

-Book area: pre-reading skills such as how to turn pages, which direction the book goes in, reading from left to right, the idea that words on the page MEAN something- huge skill!

-Science center: cause and effect, change, elemental properties, sensory awareness...

-------Any good preschool teacher will say that DAP (Developmentally Appropriate Practice) is the way to go when teaching young children.  Children learn best through play experiences.  A child who is socially, physically, cognitively and language ready with experiences from a high-quality preschool environment will be ready to learn in kindergarten.  Children naturally absorb so much information, that bombarding them with things that are outside their realm of understanding , would be counterproductive.  They should be gently scaffolded to the next developmental level (Vygotsky).  Your child can probably tell you where any McDonalds is because of the "golden arches"- this is a pre-reading skill (decoding symbols) that enables a child to be able to read.  So many of these things are done without knowing... the child just absorbs and assimilates the information without formal "teaching".  "Teaching" doesn't have to take place in a formal setting... it happens all around us in everyday situations.  These children will be more than prepared for the rigors of today's "no child left behind" kindergarten....  This preschool has the right idea behind children's development.

Answer 7

I'm not sure of the name of it, but I agree with you. "Preschool" is really just daycare that helps the child get used to idea of "school" and gives the parents a rest during the day.

At least, that's what it should be.

Answer 8

I work in a program where this is the philosophy.  We use the Creative Curriculum which was already mentioned.  There are many ways to teach writing, letter recognition, literacy, etc. through play.  

Basically the teacher figures out what works for each child and builds upon that.  And we do a lot of pre-writing and pre-reading activities.  We make the materials available to the child to learn at their own pace.  And like you said, it is fun.  The children learn to love school and learning at any early age.

Answer 9

Look into High Scope or Rggio Emila inspired curriculums.  Also check your states guidelines some require a certain % of Teacher directed learning vs. student directed.  Also talk to the school to see how they do on the ECERS (Early childhood educators rating scale) or if they are NAYCE approved.

Answer 10

Try looking into Montessori.

Answer 11

In addition to the other schools of thought mentioned, Bank Street also (generally) has a school day that resembles this.