Welcome to Week 2 of  When Play Isn’t Easy book group!  It looks as if everyone made it through the first week with only a few glitches.  Some of you mentioned that technology is not second nature to you—we are especially proud of you for making it through the week.  Know that it will get easier each time you comment. 

“Play helps us provide motivating and engaging activities that give children a developmental boost in all areas.  Play gives children opportunities to meet these standards”.  (Heidemann, S. & Hewitt, D., 2014). 

Thank you all for your thoughtful posts and responses.  It was obvious that you took the opportunity to reflect on your own views of play as well as how play is connected with the Wisconsin Early Learning Standards. 

WEEK 2:  This week we will be reading Chapter 2, which focuses on being able to share the value of play with families, funders, colleagues and directors/principals.  Please use this week as an opportunity to consider how you, as an advocate for how young children learn, would respond to questions about the value of play.  If you are taking this for graduate credit, developing a brief speech/discussion/powerpoint, etc. about the value of play is one of the options available to you for your final project.

There are several articles that you may find useful in addition to your reading and reflections this week.  These articles can be found in the Play livebinder:  http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1717363#anchor

 Alliance for Childhood (2009.) Crisis in the kindergarten:  Why children need to play in school.   Retrieved from http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf.

 Bartlett, T. (2011).  The case for play:  How a handful of researchers are trying to save childhood.  Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/The-Case-for-Play/126382.  

Enjoy the reading, reflections and conversations this week!

Cindy and Beth

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”.  --Plato