The first grade does not. Further the children in our school spend increasing amounts of time doing writing/reading academics and less in even recess. This has to do with QBE and NCLB I am sure. Not to mention the homoginization of the classes in general.

So the question is, if this article is true how do we institute more of the play to learn in school? Yes, some of this can be done at home, but lets face it not every kid has the luxury of going right home. Additionally, it is the kids who cannot go straight home that are most at risk.

For our family, we choose to spend more $$$ on a higher end daycare. We did use the school one in the past, and due to behavior changed. What we have found was a decided decrease in the incidents that occurred in the afterschool progorgam. I attributed this to not being in the same 4 walls for longer (they get gym and recess though) with the same teachers who are burned out from their academic day and like the supplemented income.

Now, I am wondering if it is not just the change of scenery. The oldest is able to do legos, housekeeping, wood blocks, painting etc because they have pre-k room as their after-care classroom. Instead of a 4th grader limited to board games and books, she has a wide variety of things to do . Additionally, she often reads aloud to the younger children, and helps them problem solve in play–teaching if you will. The playground has scooters, bikes, and in her opinion better play options than the school one.

If their homework is done (and we go over it during 1:1 time when get home) then they are free to play while I get dinner. It is always a desire to be the first to get 1:1 time (whomever has their things in order where they belong first goes first), so that they can play longer. Play often involves dress up or dolls. Many times I am brought ‘dinner’ from the play kitchen while I make dinner in mine. Sometimes I dine with queens, sometimes, with witches, and sometimes with a ‘class’ at the lunchroom (this involves dolls).

With the medication focusing the child’s brain, skill s that may well should have been learned earlier are starting to take root. I am seeing growth in them. So in my opinion it is probably ‘fixing’ the medical side and doing just what we told my child when they went on the medicine “retraining your brain.” (She by the way will tell you the medicine doesn’t make her better, he just reminds her to make better choices. Probably because we have the impulsivness under control).

Now, as to the organization issues mentioned in the article….GOOD LUCK! I firmly believe you teach that only so far. BO or FLYchild?

BTW, I like your idea of role- playing, that’s something we did a lot when my kids were younger and now that their teenagers I still do it at times.

I agree with everyone about the unstructured outside play, but it’s just not safe to do that anymore. Too many predators. I know they’ve always been there, but it seems like it’s much worse now.

FCM – go take another pill and relax – you made way too many arguments that support both sides of the issue – but ADHD was not the topic so I will not pursue further.