Purposeful Play with Your Preschooler: A Learning-Based Activity Book PDF
Preview Purposeful Play with Your Preschooler: A Learning-Based Activity Book
Purposeful Play with Your Preschooler A Learning-Based Activity Book Purposeful Play with Your Preschooler A Learning-Based Activity Book Anthony C. Maffei, Ph.D. and Teresa M. Hauck With a Foreword by Patricia Buckley, M.A. ~. INSIGHT BOOKS ~, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC Llbrary of Congress Cataloglng-ln-Publlcatlon Data Maffei, Anthony C. Purposeful play with your preschooler a learning-based actlvity book I Anthony C. Maffei and Teresa M. Hauek ; with a foreword by Patrieia Buekley. p. em. Ineludes blbllographleal referenees <p. ) and Index. 1. Early ehlldhood educatlon--United States. I. Hauek, Teresa M. Ir. Title. LB1139.25.M34 1992 372.21'0973--dc20 92-20896 CIP ISBN 978-0-306-44325-1 ISBN 978-1-4899-6385-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4899-6385-7 © 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1992. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1992 An Insigbt Book All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microftlming, recording, or otherwise, without writteri permission from the Publisher With love to our families - To Doris, James, Tom, Ashley, Lesley, and Kim -ACM To Ed and Melissa -TMH Foreword This book is intended for adults involved with preschool children. If born now, these youngsters will enter the work force during the early part of the twenty-first century, 2010 to 2020. Would anyone be fool hardy enough to predict the skills that will be necessary for gainful employment during this time or even a future time-a time whose dates look even stranger to us? We can no longer teach children rote solutions to routine problems since we cannot even venture to guess what the problems will be 20, 30, or 40 years from now. But one skill is absolutely certain: each child must develop his or her ability to think to the optimum qf his or her potential. How can caring adults foster this development? Certainly, it would help us to understand the stages of child development so that the time spent with aur children is enjoyable, both for the adults who see the child's face light up as he gains new knowledge and the youngster who views the activities as interesting rather than frustrating experiences. Someone said that time is money and, like money, time is some thing none of us has enough of. The activities suggested in this book will help you make the most of the time you spend with your child. Don't waste the precious early stages of your child's development drill ing the youngster in unnecessary or incorrect skills. Don't waste those minutes in tasks inappropriate to the age and ability of your child. This book will show you how to make these tim es happy and productive. PATRICIABuCKLEY Butler, NJ vii Acknowledgments Many bodies of work, as in the case of a book, a piece of music, or a painting, have their start as an idea which then goes through the long journey leading to a completed product. Potentially good ideas some times remain abstractions, for they fail to gain the necessary support from a variety of people. Without key people who gave us inspiration, made comments, and offered encouragement, this book would still be just that-an abstraction. Consequently, we would like to first recognize Norma Fox, our contact person and Executive Editor at Insight Books, for guiding and shaping our idea into its proper form. Also, Patricia Buckley, now a retired college professor and fellow author, not only let us use the math activities from her Teaching Preschool: Foundations and Activities in Part 11 of our book, but also critiqued our work. Her words of wisdom and years of experience are also reflected in the Foreword. Yvette Pond and Bridget Lockett put their creative minds and talented hands to work and produced all of the professional-looking drawings in the book and on the front cover. Carol Adams gave us help and suggestions for turning our individual drafts into a clearly and correctly written whole. Doris Barlow Maffei, mother of five, provided the ideas that formed the outline for Part 11. Kathy Douglas not only provided wonderful ideas for activities in Part 11 but, as a friend and assistant to Teresa M. Hauck, gave much ix x Acknowledgments support and encouragement. Thanks also go to Edward Hauck and Francine P. McQuaide Obrero for contributing the adorable photo graphs and to the children and adults in them. Shucilah Kalliappan, Mary June "MiMi" and Jim "Paw Paw" Hauck, Kim Griffiths, and Jennifer and Amie Whippie were wonderful assistants for caring for and entertaining Melissa, the daughter ofTeresa M. Hauck, while Mommy was working on this book. Thanks to Melanie "Pete" Norris, Joni Kelly, Karol Rockey, Jim Hauck, and Velma McQuaide for contributing an activity to Part 11, as weil as to Aissatou "Mama" Bah and Bridget Lynch for each of their activities and also caring for and enteraining Melissa. Dr. Nancy Kimmons, Director for Family Life Services at Florida State University, gave support and encouragement as did Alison Iglehart of Tallahassee Community College. Thanks to our spouses, Doris and Ed, for their patience, understanding, encouragement, and ideas; without them we would never have completed our task. Jean Piaget (1896-1980) must be mentioned as one of the first to elaborate on theories ofhow children acquire knowledge. Without hirn there would be no idea. Anthony C. Maffei was first introduced to Piaget many years ago when he was a graduate student in mathematics education, studying with Jack M. Ott at the University ofSouth Caro hna. Then later, while teaching the mathematical apphcations of Pia get's theory to future preschool teachers, Anthony developed an idea that culminated in the above-mentioned book written with Pat. Norma also contributed to that idea when she was editor of Human Sciences Press (now part ofPlenum). About four years ago, that same book led to another idea that eventually developed into the work before you now. It is hoped this book will be of value to all those who are fortunate enough to be involved in the excitement and joy of watching and participating in the learning process with preschoolers. Finally, thanks to the following who have given us permission to quote from their books: Excerpts from The Essential Piaget, edited by H. Gruber and]. Voneche. Copy right © 1977 by Basic Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission of the publisher. Acknowledgments xi Piaget,Jean, and Inhelder, Barbel. The Psychology ojthe Child. Translated from the French by Helen Weaver. New York: Basic Books, 1969. Pulaski, Mary Ann Spencer. Understanding Piaget. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. Pulaski, Mary Ann Spencer. Your Baby's Mind and How lt Grows. New York: Harper & Row, 1978. A. C. M. T. M. H. Contents I • FOUNDATIONS 1. Introduction 3 Surviving 3 A Growing Trend 3 The Presehool Years 4 Strueture versus Unstruetured 5 About This Book 6 2. Beginning Intellectual Development 7 Introduetion 7 Assimilation and Aeeommodation 7 Faetors Meeting the Balance 8 From Birth to 2 Years Old 9 3. The Years from Two to Five . 13 Faetors Meeting Logieal Thinking 13 xiii
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