Children benefit most from extended periods of free play (Jeynes, 2006). There is ample research available to back up this theory should you need to defend this sensibility to the "powers that be". I'll leave further discussion of this challenge for a later time and instead offer a small suggestion for something a parent can do now to help offset the strain put upon our little ones in today's over-tested classroom.
Support, or scaffold (for those teachers out there) your child's outdoor play time!
Find little bits of time in your busy schedule to offer nature to your child or student. This week my daughter's school administered the CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) to all kindergartners. This involves three consecutive days of testing, each session lasting about one hour. As the parent, I was not offered the opportunity to exempt my daughter from this assessment. So I took immediate action in a small way at home. From 8:00a.m.-8:30a.m. my daughter is free to play outside before school. She builds fairy houses, plays on the swing set, and just generally runs around getting fresh air and day dreaming. In just the few days since we began this practice I have noticed a difference. It's actually easier to get her out the door to school and her mood seems brighter. She appreciates the extra play time before, as she so clearly puts it, she must "sit still, no talking, no getting up, just sitting! Boring!".
Every little bit helps! You can find windows of time for your children and students to play outside.
One last thing. There is no doubt in my mind that my daughter is gifted (mother's bias, maybe). I don't need a standardized test to tell me that. How would you define "gifted"? A sample question from the verbal classification section of the CogAT asks students to choose the best answer following the sequence: white, yellow, red. The choices are: marker, crayon, color, book, or black. While we can see the "best" answer is color, would you blame a kindergartner for choosing crayon or marker? What is the current compulsion to ask little children to think like adults? To be fair, you may click here to read current research on the CogAT. I've mentioned this before, but I think it bears repeating. I am not anti-assessment, on the contrary. I support a balance of developmentally appropriate assessment.
Finally, research supporting the ability to identify "gifted" children in kindergarten is scant. In fact, the data suggests quite the opposite. Stay tuned for a posting of some of this research.
Now step away from your computer and go get a breath of fresh air. And tomorrow morning, consider adding some outside play to your child's routine!
Jeynes, W.H. (2006). Standardized tests and froebel's original kindergarten model. Teachers College
Record, 108(10), 1937-1959).
