Please let your children play

There is a group of families at my son's school who are planning to leave all at once next month. Stupid drama that I'm not interested in, but I am not planning to leave our current school to go to this overflow school back with the district.Right now my son goes to an amazing, emergent, play based and child centered preschool part time, and in the afternoons he goes to his transitional kindergarten class for 3 hours everyday with a small class. If I was going to transfer him, he would not be able to attend his preschool, and he'd be at a new campus for a full day, with a class 3-4x the size he's in now, plus it will be basically teacher-directed instruction all day.As an early childhood educator, I know this is not the best choice for my son. All of the other parents I've spoken to have asked me why I'm not sending my son. I explained how the longer we can put off traditional academics and just let our children play, the better for their development. I talked about how great the play based preschool is that my son attends and I don't want to pull him out of it so he can join a bigger class for a longer school day, that isn't play based.One parent said, "I paid a lot of money for my son's preschool, he better learn there. If he wants to play, he can play at home for free".I guess some parents still don't know that play is how children learn. Playing builds their language skills, deepens their cognitive skills, develops their social/emotional skills, and so much more. Parents, please know that your child learns soooo much through unstructured, free play.10 things every parent should know about play via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2ffTDtb