I had a parent-teacher conference at my daughter’s school today. It’s a play-based preschool, and I joked to my husband that our daughter was going to fail playing and be held back to play for another year. I think that would be grand, but our parent-teacher conferences are mostly a check-in time about our child’s temperament and abilities, certainly not about academic progress in the traditional sense.
I feel that I am about to become a strong steward of my child’s right to play. As kindergarten approaches, the amount of time my daughter is in school is about to increase a lot. This means that other things have to give. These include lessons, time with parents and grandparents, field trips, and outdoor play time. This also includes free play at home. The other day my daughter spent a good hour hopping around the room pretending to be a bunny. While this can also happen after three o’clock, the amount of time she has to just be is about to decrease.
Yet imaginative play is so important for young children. What can a parent do to safeguard their child’s play time? Well, for one we are going to kindergarten for half the day, pulling our daughter at noon so that she can play and go on field trips. We also have minimal lessons, one a term, preferring play time and field trips over scheduled classes. Also, I am endeavoring to be home for longer, uninterrupted stretches. It takes a while for my daughter to get into her imaginative scenarios, and when she’s only home for a short time this is more difficult. In the summer, I plan to register in shorter camps to allow time for a lot of free play as well.
Do you safeguard your child’s right to play? How do you do this?