Each summer the faculty completes required school reading. This summer there were two choices- Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax, M.D., PhD. as well as Girls Will Be Girls written by Joann Deak. Both were fabulous reads, with insightful information regarding childhood growth and development.
In the boys book, I walked away with a ton of valuable information. Sax explains the need for young children to have play time included in their daily regimen. He also explains that most often boys will gravitate towards play that requires building, while girls will gravitate towards games that include coloring and cutting. I thought it would be interesting to break this norm! Every morning the children are allotted playtime after a small project has been completed. This playtime is pretty unstructured, allowing for the children to float between groups and choose their own games. This Friday, however, I told the children that during this playtime the boys would need to do the following: stencil, color, cut, or play with dolls; and vise-versa the girls would need to play with legos or build with blocks. Some of my students were EXTREMELY SKEPTICAL! But let's be honest- if I did not schedule playtime in these areas- the boys/girls may never utilize them! All I have to say is...the students did an absolutely superb job in each area. I witnessed boys stenciling works of art! I witnessed girls building tall towers! YAY, 6D!
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