Playcentre

Playcentre is a parent co-operative that runs early childhood education centres. So, basically a group of parents(ideally 15 to 30, see Dunbar's number) run sessions co-operatively to provide their children with an early childhood education using the National curriculum, Te Whariki (i.e. as good as kindergarten but with higher adult:child ratio and with parents present to work out any attachment issues), manage the finances, administration, building and equipment maintenance and supported by an integrated and state-recognised early childhood education training program.

[|www.playcentre.org.nz] A typical Playcentre session will have children from birth to school age playing together with their parents and the other adults, engaged in a wide range of learning experiences. To ensure the quality of sessions there is a common commitment to:
 * learning through play
 * birth to school age
 * mixed ages sessions
 * family involvement

There are many sophisticated aspects that serve the single aim of the Playcentre organisation, which is for parents to cooperate together to provide a quality early childhood experience for their children. Playcentre views children as people who are strong and capable, who learn through play and who are competent to make their own choices about how and where to play (Free choice play).
 * //The three simple rules in Playcentre are://**
 * respect the play of others
 * respect property
 * respect the rights of others

At Playcentre, children are in charge and it is an important aspect of the Playcentre philosophy that children experience a sense of personal power. We believe that a long-term consequence of this philosophy is that children grow up as adults who can make their own decisions, direct their own lives and maintain positive relationships with others. Once children are settled and old enough, most Playcentres allow them to attend without their parents for one or more sessions a week. Parents are the first and best educators of children, Playcentre seeks to support parents and whaanau as they and their children learn and grow together.
 * Sessions:**
 * Are run by parents, and the responsibility for supervision may rest on the shoulders of one person (a supervisor), or a team of parents (team supervision), or all parents (group supervision) depending on the region.
 * Are run for half a day
 * The ratio of adults to children ranges from 1:5 to 1:3.
 * Each centre offers a wide range of basic play areas at every session.
 * Each session will have children from birth to school age playing together with their parents and the other adults.
 * Children choose where and how they play and the role of the adults is to support and extend the play, the ideas and the thinking.

Playcentre philosophy

Attachment Parents are the best educators Rich environment

Children's development at the Jones Child Study Center is cultivated by spatially defined learning centers, where small group child-generated play experiences happen in a two-level indoor playhouse, several sand-and-water stations outside, spacious and varied large motor opportunities, as well as activities in [|aesthetics], [|mathematics] , [|science] , [|literacy] and [|language] -all accessible both indoors and out. [|[25]] Due to its architectural design, the Jones Child Study Center establishes a [|social ecology] for learning where children, alone and in small groups, use defined indoor and outdoor areas. Each area, or ecology, is not only a particular place in the [|classroom] or play yard, it also conveys a set of // social expectations // for the kind of things children will // do // at the site. [|[26]] That is why it is sometimes referred to as a social ecology. Based on Jones Child Study Center research, an ecology is defined by: An ecology encourages learning by focusing children's curiosity and initiative on specific learning experiences. []
 * the kinds of available materials, objects, people, space, and time,
 * the kinds of activities children naturally enjoy doing with these materials in this area,
 * the kinds of social interactions that occur in the area, and
 * a shared history of how they played in this area in the past [|[27]]

Appropriate Learning Environment For Children //Source: Developing an Appropriate Learning Environment for Children Five through Eight Years Old, Southern Association on Children Under Six.//
 * 1)  **A child learns as a total person.** Knowledge and skills learned through all areas... physical, social, emotional and intellectual... to help children learn how to learn and to establish the foundation for continuous lifelong learning.
 * 2)  **Children grow through similar stages of development, but at different rates and in different styles.** Every child is unique. Different levels of development and understanding affect every learning task. Children must be allowed to move at their own pace in acquiring skills. Most will learn these in their own time by the age of seven or eight.
 * 3)  **The way children feel about themselves and their sense of competence is learning impacts every learning act.** The way a child receives information may be as important to learning as the information received. Methods, climate, atmosphere and teacher attitude all affect the child's self-esteem.
 * 4)  **Children learn best in active ways through interaction with the environment and with people.** Teacher planning time is best spent preparing the environment for active learning. As children interact with each other, with teachers, and with a variety of material, they apply all types of learning processes.
 * 5)  **Children learn best when they are taught through an integrated curriculum that allows for pattern-building and selection of a wide variety of sensory data.** Projects, learning centers and real-life activities related to the interests of children promote learning of concepts and skill through application and meaningful practice.
 * 6)  **Children cannot be given knowledge.** They must construct it for themselves through continuous action in their environments. Knowledge is constructed as a pattern of mental representations. It can only be constructed through action on materials. Each child's construction of knowledge is personal and unique. No two children, therefore, come to know something in exactly the same ways. Playful activity is the natural method of learning for young children.
 * 7)  **Learning is a very social process.** As children converse with others about interesting projects and ideas, they expand their abilities to communicate orally, as well as through reading and writing.
 * 8)  **Children learn the skills of communication and expression when they are given many opportunities to share their learning with others through a variety of forms.** In a good language and literacy program, children are encouraged to expand all their communication skills.
 * 9)  **Children learn math skills and processes when they are encouraged to explore, discover, and solve real mathematics problems through both spontaneous and planned activities.** The math program in an elementary school should be designed to interest children in thinking and organizing experiences in mathematical ways, rather than to teach rote computation.
 * 10)  **Children learn best when the classroom environment is organized but flexible, and when developmentally appropriate tasks are encouraged.** Disorganization, inappropriate expectations, and emphasis on paper-pencil activities can quickly lead to stress and related problems in young children.

//Exemplar:// []