Blog post 1

    After reading the Nelsen article, the concept that stood out to me the most was "Play as a Developmental Resource, Attitude, or Activity. Nelsen argues that playing is not only fun, but it is crucial for children because it gets them ready for school. He argues that it teaches skills crucial for a school environment such as "improved verbal fluency, imagery, delaying capacity or self-control, persistence, cooperation, less unwarranted aggression, and greater signs of creativity" (Nelsen 100). Nelsen also argues that "providing students with literacy-related objects and early experiences helps them engage in 'emergent' literacy play that also help them develop into readers" (Nelsen, 100). Reading this article made me realize that many toys aimed for young children are also educational. Playing is a great way to get kids to learn because it makes it fun, which is necessary to capture young children's attention.

    This topic resinates with me since I learned to read at a young age because my mom would read to me every night. I was only three or so, so I do not remember much, but I do remember reading a few pages from whatever children's books were popular 20 years ago, such as "Magic Treehouse" and "Junie B. Jones" in which I followed along with my mom and looked at the pictures. I also went to something called ECFE which stands for "Early Childhood Family Education". ECFE was kind of like pre-pre-school. The kids would play and whatnot for a few hours while the parents got together to discuss parenting tips, and would learn how to get their children ready for school. I believe that ECFE and reading every night helped me get ready for school on an educational level and a social level because by the time kindergarten rolled around, I had already had two years of school under my belt, and it was a nice way to ease into school.

    This leads me to wonder how one could go about getting a child to focus, rather than just play. Oftentimes, as I have experienced with my younger brother, children like to get "too into" playtime. While play is fun, it should also be used as a learning tool. Sometimes, when my brother is focused on playing rather than learning, it is very difficult to real him back into reality and get him to refocus. I worry about him because I have noticed that he has not hit the same developmental milestones as his peers. I often wonder if there is a way for him to refocus, or for me to aid him in doing so?