August 2024
Play to Thrive:
Building on ‘The Conversation’ post below – I am sharing a PDF Paper that I wrote with my brilliant friends and colleagues Josh Fullan and Santiago Rincon-Gallardo in 2021 on the importance of play for NPDL.
Play is an inherent feature of our human nature, and children excel at it! Our concern then and now, is that play has been increasingly pushed down the list of priorities by the growing obsessions with productivity and efficiency in modern societies and institutions like our school system.
Play is the essence of building a different and richly engaging feature. Let children play to know themselves and the world around them. Children learn how to think for themselves through play and care for themselves and others through simple games of make-believe! Let there be play so that children become their own and our own future.
https://drjeanclinton.com/wp-content/uploads/PlayToThriveFINAL-1.pdf
June 2024
The Importance of Play:
An article I wrote for The Conversation on the Importance of Play.
Play is not the opposite of learning, and I know kindergartens must embrace playful learning, play is how children learn, create, and problem-solve. In addition, many are concerned there may be a link between mental illness among children and adolescents and play deprivation.
With the Ministry’s new kindergarten curriculum – I want to ensure we create a win/win situation and a both-and situation, where we can focus on literacy, through playful learning! Play changes the brain by enhancing brain structure and function, we learn about children and they learn about themselves through play and repetition. There are so many benefits to play – read more about it in this article: