very, very interesting article.. Jackie, you commented..but I also believe that had I simply let them play, and never had them do anything that fostered the acquisition of thinking skills, they would have had a much, much harder time in school. I think you did have them play. i doubt your children saw the find the letter game as anything other than a game.. Play can be intructive.. (and destructive..) but i think a lot of kids nowdays miss out on play.. they watch television. they have coloring books.. with premade designs. they have a barbie with a wardrobe.. they don't play.
play includes making skyscapers from a pile of books*, and learning that things stack better when the biggest, (area) or heaviest (weight) is on the bottom. * or an other objects.
play is active, and often messy. my son once conducted a series of experiments out on eggs.. i was on the phone in an other room, close by, but out of his sight. I heard him talking to himself, and "explaining" things, and thought he was having fun, and not up to too much mischief. he was observing the different kinds of splat an egg made when dropped from the lower (under seat) rung of chair, or from the seat of the chair, or from standing on the chair.. he concluded an egg made a much bigger mess when dropped from standing on the chair. (i had heard the "thunks" but couldn't quite identify the sound.. )
any adult might say D'oh!, but it was new to him.
there was a study published about childhood games and play, that showed a corralation between the kinds of games kids where good at, and their school work. Hide and seach -- a "good" hidder tended to be kids who where very good in abstract math. Hidders-- knew (learned?) how much space (Volume) their bodies took up, and could, assess other spaces, and hide in spaces that closely matched their personal volume. often a smaller space than imaged by people who where not good at this skill.
monkey bars, hopscotch, other games, developed other skills.
an other recent study, showed that watching television expended less energy than sleeping!
I do agree, that children should enter school with some basic skills including knowing the alphabet, how to count, and colors. and that many children don't get taught these basic skills. but i also think there is a real problem with kids being plopped down in front of a TV for hours! your play was very direrted to helping your children learn skills they would need, but even undirected play teaches more than TV.
Mokita
