Blog Post 2

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Michele, who is the owner of a child care center in Illinois. Michele has been a childcare professional for over twenty years and has been a advocate for the quality care children receive while in the child care setting. I begin to introduce my topic for my research paper to Michele about the importance of play for children and their development. Michele has strong views that children should have the opportunity to explore their environment. Through play children are able to solve small problems, build their vocabularies, and learn to respect others and themselves.

One insight that I gained from Michele is her understanding of how children learn differently and how important it is that professionals create an environment for children to express ideas and learn from the people around them. Another insight that I gained from Michele was the importance of making the activities child directed and helping them learn from knowledge they already have.

Children need to have interactions with others in order to understand feelings, language, and cognitive thinking. Play allows a child to understand the different roles that people take on while talking, which helps in understanding words and their meaning. This is a skill that is needed to help children gain the skills of reading and writing, Through play children are capable of building life long skills to help them be productive members of society.

Blog Journal #1

I am thinking of focusing my research paper on the following area: Children Learning Through Play. I had the opportunity to talk with Jamie about her beliefs on different ways children learn. Jamie gave great insights on her understanding that children learn different aspects of life through play, such as language development, problem solving skills, cognitive development, emotional development, as well as physical development. Some issues that are related to this topic are families not understanding the importance of play, as well as the grade schools putting too much focus on standardized test. I often have issues with other professionals about the amount of play a child should have while they are in school. I feel that there should not be a limit on the amount of time a child has to play because this is the time when children are able to explore their environment and learn at their own pace. The advocacy efforts that are being made are getting more information to educators and families about the importance of children learning through play. I believe that this issue is the one that deserves professionals to become advocates because when children are not allowed to express themselves through play it can lead to negative developmental issues.

How children learn.

Hello~
Many parents who have never put their children in a child care center feel that there is not enough "school work" being done in the class. I want to get as much information out to parents and explain the importance of play in the child care setting. I am looking for any and all ideas to help parents gain more knowledge on the importance of play in the classroom.