What would be your advise for a parent like me who is unable to find a school that values play. I live in Abu Dhabi UAE, and all schools here are academic focused. My 4 year old son will be joining from September. I have always provided him an unstructured free play environment at home. How do I make sure he can have the same after he joins school. The timings of schools are long too from 6:45 morning till 1 afternoon.

A worried mother

Thirty years ago, my children attended Montessori pre-primary. Neither was ready to read in Kindergarten; the teachers continued to offer them the works they would need to read, but the teachers were unconcerned that they couldn’t read before entering elementary school. They told me reading was mainly developmental, reminding me, some children walk at 10-months-old, and others walk at 14-months-old, both are normal, and the chronological age is irrelevant. I can’t imagine either one of my children being educated in today’s American school system with its standardized curriculum and testing.

NZ is the same. I only wish that primary schools and high schools were more focused on moulding the teaching to the brains of the children, instead of expecting them to mould their brains towards the teaching offered.

But the thing in this article that stands out to me is not that the teacher was teaching about shapes- but her negativity! The correct reply was ‘yes! It is a circle! What other words could you use to describe it?’

First of all, the kid is 100% right and she is wrong!! The answer to the question “what is this?” is in fact ‘a circle”. Assuming it was 2 dimensional, if 3D then it’s a ball or sphere. When have you ever heard someone say “that is a round”??

But in addition to that, ‘no, it’s a…’ is never how you should talk to any child, especially a young one. Sure doesn’t encourage any further thinking in them. It’s an ‘ours is not to wonder why, just reverse and multiply’ approach and we in any educational field should know better. Doesn’t mean you should pretend an actual wrong answer is correct, it means you should ask more questions so the student actually comes to the correct conclusion themselves. “What is 2 + 2?” 5 is the wrong answer. Tell a kid just that, and their learning in the moment is shut down by embarrassment and self criticism. Saying “that’s pretty close, how can we check?”,, or “how about you hold up two fingers on one hand and two on the other and count them to check” means the child can realize his first answer wasn’t correct- but because he finds the correct one on his own, and the feeling he’s left with is one of success and confidence in his ability to work things out, even mistakes.

Why any educator would want anything different is completely beyond me.

Is your chain nationwide? I am looking for a school like this for my daughter. Thank you.

Where can you search for a play-based school? I have been looking for one for my daughter & have been at a loss. Please help! Thank you!

Most toddler (18-36 month-old) and primary (36 months -6 years old) appear to have an academic component, but if you read the objectives in a Montessori lesson plan they have nothing to do with the academics. There is a leaf work in the primary room that children trace the leaf works or I have seen leaf rubbings done. The objective has nothing to do with the leaves, but is developing concentration and the ability to set up, complete, and put away a project/lesson. Also, there is a huge outdoor component to most Montessori school during which the children free play most of the time (outside gardening projects). Montessori is 100% child lead up to first grade- if the child wants to work with a sensory work the whole school day that is fine. If he/she prefers drawing – great. My child chose to do the more academic math and literacy works from the get go in her primary years and was reading and doing math operations and geometry works first, then chose to engage in more sensory, cultural, and exploration/research. Other kids only use the cultural works such as flags for the drawing component and could care less about the country they represent, what foods people eat there, what animals come from there etc, and that is fine. I know both types of kids who are now in middle school gifted programs so the child-lead component must work…..

Absolutely not too early. We should talk about feelings with kids from birth. When teachers at these type of schools teach these skills there is never talk of a behavior or feeling being bad, just the labeling. Now if a kid hits another kid the teacher may talk a child through a more pro-social way of handling the emotion/feeling that caused him/her to hit, but NEVER say that behavior was naughty or bad.

This is why all teachers need to be trained on “Trauma Informed” educational, supportive, and discipline practices. There are school districts where a majority of the children enter school already having experienced some form of trauma:(