I’m pleased to say I completed my Play on Pedals Instructor course today – thanks to Victoria Harris and @cyclingscotland

This article is US based but still very relevant. I love the suggestion that nursery (kindergarten) is now considered a gatekeeper checking who is ready and who is not to go to school when once it was the welcome mat encouraging children to cross into formal schooling.
I have often said that relationships are central to positive early years experiences and its one of the reasons I am so passionate about playgroup. At playgroup we have the advantage of significant parental inviolvement and of being very community focussed – both of which foster relationships between staff, parents and community as well as with children. Its a win win situation as far as I am concerned.
By its very name playgroup centres around children’s play – the way children are designed to learn – not on teaching and not on being the first step of the formal education ladder.
A child’s early years are short and we shouldn’t be wasting them by imposing our adult ideas of what their learning should look like.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/the-new-preschool-is-crushing-kids/419139/?utm_source=fbb