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Welcome to issue #14!
It is my great pleasure to interview Diane Hill, self-employed educational consultant and representative for Discovery Toys.
Diane first came to Washington from Montana as a Presidential Management Intern. She was employed at HUD, EPA, and on Capitol Hill during her first 3 years in the Civil Service. She worked on the Hill from 1989 to 1998, originally on the House side and then on the Senate. She served as the Appropriations Legislative Assistant while the Senator served on the Appropriations Committee and was the Legislative Director for Bob Kerrey from Nebraska when she left.
Since leaving the Hill, Diane has learned about education policy and reality through her experience as a parent. She has three children ages 14, 11 and 8. All told, her children were enrolled for seven years at Beverley Hills Church Preschool, a Cooperative Preschool in Alexandria, using the Reggio-Emilio method. She has been immersed in Alexandria City Public Schools for nine years and home schooled her youngest child through the first half of first grade and all of second grade. She says that, "As parents it is our role to be our children's primary teacher throughout life. The most important role we play in our lives is giving our children a strong foundation."
I chose to interview Diane now, because summer is the season we most associate with play, the perfect time to get some of her expert advice on how to enhance the role of play in our lives.
Contact Diane at (703) 548-4608, (703) 966-7389, at dianetoys@gmail.com, or at www.dianehilltoys.com.
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The Importance of Play - an interview with Diane Hill
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Thank you very much for granting us this interview, Diane.
First, why is play so important?
Play is the work of children. They experience life with all of their senses and learn through their experiences. They begin to mimic our actions immediately. As children develop, they make sense of their environment and expand their knowledge through play. When they play with toys that offer them the ability to use their senses in multiple ways, they develop problem solving skills, increase their attention span, increase their critical thinking skills and enhance their creativity by leaps and bounds. Children are ready at birth to learn. They are determined to learn and do so happily and willingly through trial and error. Play gives them that space. They begin life hard-wired for lifelong learning. Play provides the opportunity for that learning to occur.
We need to foster the sense of play throughout their school years and into adulthood. The time that schools have to allow children to play is limited. Family time is the true laboratory where they can put concepts that they learn in school to use in real time.
How is play related to learning?
We know that when lectured to we retain 5% of the information shared. When we see a demonstration we retain 30%. When we actually get our hands on what is being taught and take it in physically, we retain 75% of what is being taught. Furthermore, if the information being taught is of interest to us we are more likely to explore it ourselves. Play is the act of taking time to physically connect with our world and gain a greater understanding of that which interests us.
Play is the time when we try out new ideas, explore concepts that truly interest us. It gives us the freedom and space to pursue creative endeavors. Children get to unleash the energy and passion they have during playtime, be it following the trail of a colony of ants, sifting through dirt underneath a tree or setting up complex social structures where they mimic teachers, parents and other adults that they ponder in the course of their daily lives. They are testing the world to see what makes it tick and how they fit in. As they develop hypotheses about various subjects, they immediately put them to the test and resolve to master the world in their own way.
This process occurs at all ages. We are all viewing, adjusting, and making sense of the world around us.
Is a greater need for play today than when we were children?
The need for play has always been very high. Unstructured, open-ended toys and games are ideal for all ages. Asking kids to develop a skit, pull together a game of soccer by themselves or negotiate the rules to a card game can be fun to watch and participate in. My recent favorite activity is working with children to help them do improvisation in acting. They are challenged to be creative, take risks, succeed and fail all within a safe framework of having fun and playing. Improv is a growth experience, helping build confidence and creativity.
Today's world finds kids in a highly structured environment. As parents, one of our greatest challenges is to give children the time and tools to engage in and enjoy their play. Many parents seem to be afraid that their children will be left behind if they don't do every organized activity available. The real gift we can give our children is the time to be children. Give them time away from technology. Give them the tools to explore the world and see how it works. Write observations. Keep a journal. Have toys on hand that can be used as models to make sense of the world around them. Teach them how to win and lose games. The world will hand them everything in the course of a day, month or year. When they play they can learn how to lose with grace, negotiate successfully, let others take the lead and find a space in the world where they can thrive. If we put our energy into making sure they never lose, never negotiate and come up short, or never let others be in the limelight, we do our children a great disservice. Great toys allow for all of that and give parents a place to be -- right beside their children seeking learning through play.
What is the best investment I can make in my child's education?
Play, read, talk and listen to your child. Be present. Get toys and games that are on level. Many parents believe they need to stretch their children. The reality is that we all love to do things that we're good at. When I sew, I like to sew things that are on my level. I know when I'm bored with that and ready to move on. I even know when I need to go backward and do the simple work I used to find challenging in order to keep my spirit up when trying so hard to meet the new challenge.
Children have the same needs. They love to master things, move on to the next challenge and go back to the comfortable place where they came from. I have two toys that I've fallen in love with the Measure Up Cups! and the Giant Pegboard. You can begin using them at 12 and 18 months respectively to teach simple concepts like colors and shapes and continue to use them through 3rd and 4th grade to teach multiplication, division, place value, and complex patterning. They give children the breadth of experience that they can learn on, grow with, go backward and stretch forward with for several years. It is comforting to children to have the same toys they have used for years when learning a new and challenging concept like place value or multiplication.
Being patient with the learning process and allowing our children to move forward at their own pace is a gift. When we take away toys before they are ready to move on and replace them with toys that are too challenging, we set our children up for failure. Furthermore, they know that they are letting us down because the new toys are too challenging and they cannot master them. It would be much like taking your favorite activity and forcing growth and challenge by pulling away all of the underlying comfortable rhythms that you've developed over the course of your interest.
How can we as parents expand the role of play in our children's -- and our own -- lives?
We simply must make time for it. Provide all types of outlets for your children. Find time to play a game, even if it's in the car. Make up rhymes, songs, skits about things that are happening in your lives. Let your children put on a Saturday Night Live skit for you. Get out a toy and play with it by yourself. Modeling is a great form of teaching. When they see you learning to juggle or solve a complex puzzle they know it is all right to learn through play at any age. As we get older, we expect success immediately when we try something new. We forget that when we learned to ride our bikes or write a word it took lots of trial and error. Life is no different because you have more experience. Let your children see you learn through trial and error. It will help them gain resilience in life.
Games and toys are invaluable for children and adults. They give us room to learn from each other. We see the world differently when we play. When we play a board game together, the nonverbal communication that occurs says, "I like being with you." It provides a common space to share information and experiences. Having hands busy and minds working towards problem solving and critical thinking while playing a game fosters communication and closeness. It gives all players a view of the world that they didn't have before spending a few minutes of the day together.
For you, what is the most rewarding part of being an Educational Consultant for Discovery Toys?
The most rewarding aspect of being an Educational Consultant is knowing that these toys change the lives of families for the better. I've had mothers tell me that their children are engineers and computer scientists because they had Gearopolis when they were children and played with it for hours. I know that parents are pressed now more than ever for time to spend with their children. Discovery Toys gives parents great toys and games that they can share with their children and use to foster understanding, build communication and keep the fire of lifelong learning burning brightly in our children.
I love seeing people of all ages respond to Discovery Toys. Whether I have an adult daughter trying out Juggle Toss for her father as a birthday gift or a 4 year old thinking hard how to make patterns with Busy Bugs, I love to watch how the toys make them light up.
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Sincerely, 
Kevin D. Dohmen, M.Ed. Learning Consultant21 West Caton Avenue Alexandria, VA 22301-1519 --- 703.683.9617 kevindohmen@verizon.netwww.kevindohmen.netthe art of learning for the information age
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