Wednesday, November 12, 2008

To Play Or Not To Play

Last week and again yesterday, we tried out our local Playcentre. Here, Playcentre is a place where children from ages 0-6 can go once or twice a week to engage in free choice play and parents can stay and play alongside their children. It is a parent-run cooperative with one hired supervisor. In the past I have stayed away from anything that IS public education (yes, Playcentre is an early childhood education option) because we home educate but after receiving an advertisement in the mail, I thought I wouldn't pass judgement on it until I knew exactly what it was.

On our first visit, all three of the kids had a blast. There were so many things to do, many of them being REALLY messy. Ivy enjoyed painting and created a slew of artwork. Cruz enjoyed using the scissors and cutting things into an unbelievable number of tiny bits and Melody enjoyed the gluing and collage area.

The Playcentre had many other things that the kids enjoyed including a huge sandpit with all of the toys you could ever want, a water table, a real woodworking area with saws, nails, drills and hammers (this would never happen in the USA as the possibility of hurting one's self would be too great), slides and other outdoor equipment, a goop station with slime and the like to play with and too many other things to mention. As you can see the kids would easily be able to find something to entertain themselves with for the two and a half hour session.

All was well until we turned up at the Playcentre yesterday. I had intended to enroll the children because the centre passed my inspection list of being fun and not providing instruction. As I began to ask more questions, I was quite surprised with the answers I received and the began to see a certain "Stepford Wives" look in the eyes of the other mothers.

Ivy is turning six in December and that would put her past the age for Playcentre. She would still be able to enjoy the rest of this term but after that she would be left out. I asked if she would be able to come along with us as Melody and Cruz would be 4 and 2 respectively and she would have her exemption from attending a regular school. I was initially asked if there was someone I could LEAVE her with. Then, I was told that she might be able to come and could do her school work at a table while the children played.

I was a bit surprised with both of the responses. The conversation devolved into me, the parent, being told I would be responsible for Ivy while we were there- to- me asking who is responsible for my other children while we are there (hoping they wouldn't answer, "The State!"). I guess the people really didn't see it coming but I couldn't help myself. I started questioning the underlying philosophy of Playcentre- where play and free choice are the way children learn- and asking how that mysteriously ended when the child turned 5 (the age when most parents send their children to school). I pointed out that once a child went to school, they had very few choices to make, their learning was planned, the topics they are to study are mapped out and books to be read are generally chosen by the teacher or democracy in the classroom. I tried to explain that as home educators, Ivy wouldn't have to sit there and do school work while the other children played-aren't kids in school allowed breaks/recess/play lunch-WHATEVER? Our learning doesn't have to take place from 9 am to 3 pm, Monday through Friday.

I also tried to explain that our family philosophy was not to DROP Ivy off somewhere (where that would be I am still unclear) but to include her as a valuable part of the family. I tried to stress that it would be a HUGE blow to her not to be able to come along. I would never sign up for something where she would be crushed like that. The woman, the information officer of the Playcentre, confided in me that she had to keep quite at home about what she and her 3.5 year old twins did during the day because her 5 year old at school would feel like she were missing out. And then, the woman said she was MISSING OUT! Oh no!

Needless to say, I left my concerns with the information officer. There was a meeting of the cooperative last evening and Ivy's case would be made. If the Playcentre is happy for Ivy to continue to come after she turns 6, I will most likely enroll. If not, we may look around for another Playcentre that is willing to work with home schooling families.

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