October 21

For the next few weeks I will be offering little excerpts from my book Monday Memo, due to come out sometime soon!  The book is a series of letters written by a preschool director.

October 21

Dear Teachers,

Last week at the Burlington Community Preschool Directors meeting we had a discussion about discipline and classroom management.  One of the directors reported that she made some changes in her program and has almost no discipline issues.  We all asked her secret.  She told us that she no longer had free play.  The children went from one teacher directed group activity to the next, and the children are “so busy they have no time to fight with each other.”

I almost flung a grape at her.  What was she thinking?  NO free time?  

Well, I’m pretty sure you can imagine what happened next.  The other directors started to take notes, wanting to try this when they got back to their schools.  A few of us, however, nipped that in the bud by sharing what recent research suggests.  We told them how creative free time increased cognitive thinking, and the how increased stress leads to the increase of cortisol to the brain, limiting the learning.  We spoke of substantial portion of the day and the value of unscheduled time.

I reminded them that children need time to play together in order to have some “problem solving opportunities,” like learning to share or taking turns at being the mommy.  They benefit if these experiences happen in preschool, since the teacher can offer support where needed.  By excluding free time, we exclude these experiences.

I couldn’t wait to come back here and write this letter to you all.  I am so proud of our team.  You guys “get” this, and are working hard to scale down your daily schedules in order to increase the children's free time.  Consider this memo one big group hug.