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nannyde 03:55 AM 12-31-2010
Through play, children learn to take turns, delay gratification, negotiate conflicts, solve problems, share goals, acquire flexibility, and live with disappointment. By allowing children to imagine walking in another person's shoes, imaginative play also seeds the development of empathy, a key ingredient for intellectual and social-emotional success.

I would take exception to this:

Programs centered around constructive, teacher-moderated play are very effective.

Programs centered around constructive, adult supervised play are very effective. I don't think preschoolers need "teachers" and I don't think they need moderated play. I think they need proximally supervised free play. I think they need multi-aged intergration free play so each older child can model and teach the younger kids skill sets and the younger kids can teach the older child flexibility, delayed gratification, leadership, tolerance, etc. They also need self entertainment play where they fully, completely, entertain themselves.

Play IS the key but keep the adults out of the play as "players" and put them in the role of managers and supervisors.
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