Playful Learning Roberta Michnick Golinkoff

I am really excited to read more about Roberta Michnick Golinkoff. I happened upon her work while reading a Globe and Mail article on play and how it is one of the hottest research topics of the day.

http://udel.edu/~roberta/

She has twelve books out and the website will connect you to executive summaries as well as some full access to articles. I hope to blog some thoughts about her work and how I see its application to any kindergarten experiences I might find myself in over the next little while.

 http://udel.edu/~roberta/publications.html

	A Mandate for Playful Learning in Preschool: Presenting the Evidence  Play has become a four-letter word. In an effort to give children a head start on academic skills like reading and mathematics, play is discouraged and didactic learning is stressed. This book presents the scientific evidence in support of three points: 1) Children need both unstructured free play and playful learning under the gentle guidance of adults to best prepare them for entrance into formal school; 2) academic and social development are so inextricably intertwined that the former must not trump attention to the latter; and 3) learning and play are not incompatible; learning takes place best when children are engaged and enjoying themselves. Playful learning, and not drill-and-practice, engages and motivates children in ways that enhance developmental outcomes and life-long learning. If we hope to prepare intelligent, socially skilled, creative thinkers for the global workplace of tomorrow, we must return play to its rightful position in children's lives. Click here to read the executive summary. Click here to visit the official website.

Playing with Play

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.” Leo F. Buscaglia

I am an early learning educator. I have worked in the world of early childhood education as a day care and nursery school teacher in four provinces, rural and urban, northern and southern, as a children's advocate in social services and family violence, in anti poverty initiatives, provincial planning and policy groups, ECE workshops and teacher training, and most recently as a kindergarten teacher. What remains constant across these experiences is the miss understanding of play. Yes this kind of miss, They missed the boat. I missed that, could you repeat it? Am I missing something?

I want to use my blogging as a way to better express the value of play based learning as well as what it looks and sounds like. Indie Kindie is a place to remedy attitudes and preconceptions of play by building a more complete understanding of purposeful and developmentally appropriate play as and for early learning. Through collecting and curating the growing research,information and resources I will attempt to construct an ideal of the  Independent Kindergarten(er) This space is meant to provide for exploration and discovery of current play, work and learning for for Independent Kinders. Indie Kindie's.


Here is a sample of a Newsletter that I send home to families to  help them with some beginning questions they have about play based learning.