Journal Entry #4

My interview questions were related with the outdoor and indoor play of children. I wanted to know how children feel and understand about play. I interviewed 12 children so far, aged from 2 1/2 yrs to 7yrs. They were very interested in interviews and anxious to give the interviews, and gave very honest answers. Most of the answers from age 2 1/2 till 3 1/2 yrs old i got is "play is fun, i like to play"."I like to play outside". I did show them their pictures playing out doors as well as doing activities indoors and asked them about their experience of that particular activity.It also gave them a chance to recall the event and it did help in developing their memory skills.

Interview responses of children and Chapter 17 of Handbookk

As i have been reading chapter 6 in " Researching Children's experiences" and some articles how to take Interviews for research data,also chapter 17 in Handbook of Research. I learned the best way of interviewing children nd adults through chapter 6 and how to build up my openended questionnaire for parents and children. I kept in mind that i cannot be abstract or too broad in my interviw. Prior to inteview i made children comfortable and confident by explaining them why i need their opinion about play. as i told them "i want to know your opinion about play ,so i can do things as you like". This really encouraged them to talk about play, and give their opinion. Rather made them anxious to give their opinion. It was interesting to know how much they liked their voice to be heard by an adult, and feel confident when they know their voice/opinion has been acknowledged.I did use during my interview sessions, photoelicitation, and stimulus drawing approaches.As i read chapter 7 in Researchin Children, about Art and Photography. i did use children's views on their pictures playing indoors and out doors.I noted the views as well as observed their reactions seeing the pictures of themselves playing outdoors and indoors and recalling the pleasures they had that particular day/time.i mostly interview my day care children and some of my old students who come and visit me also children of my family members.Most of the children's response i got was ,play is for fun, and i like it outside. answer to my second question most children replied, we like to play on trees and sand boxes,some children did like to play on slides and swings. basically every one of them liked to play active play outdoors.Also through their views i noticed all of them loved to play with their friends and it is important for the development of their social/emotional skills as well as their problem solving skills, besides other developmental skills.
My interviews are stillgoing on, as after giving a little time break of a week or two i want to again continue interviewing my children to see the difference in their responses or do they still think the same. As i was reading in Researching Children, usually the researchers keep in touch with the participant group for some longer time period .But as i am not only depending o exclusively on interviews for my project i use different methods such as observations, photoelicitation,drawings,storytelling and pretend play. These participant children are mostly from my day care and know me as well trust me so i did not have to build a rapport with them. They are comfortable enough to talk with me, only i had to give them the confidence of talking about their feelings on certain issues.Which initially they were confused why i am asking, Don't i know?But after knowing my reason for asking them questions, they were very interested and anxious to answer.

PARENT'S VIEWS OF OUTDOOR PLAY.

As i have been reading articles and journals, and especially for the final presentation i did read bunch of articles and was overwhelmed by the information i gained.I was so excited to use all the knowledge i gained, then lot of my children were sick one after another because of weather.so the continuity of my interview work and its proceedings did delayed.Being their care provider as well as supporter to parents it was getting stressful for me. Along with the pressure of getting behind in my work. Ultimately a thought did come to my mind as Dava mentioned it in class that she asked her friends on net to respond to her thoughts and quite a lot responded. so thanks to Dava for thought provoking idea. I used her idea and also asked parents and friends about their idea of play outdoors and indoors. As most of the adults now-a days provide children with electronic toys and think that is very good and healthy for child's brain stimulation. But actually it is the opposite. As i read some of the articles and it is amazing to know that children who are deprived of outdoor play have more cases of ADHD and obesity. they also show more tantrums and mood swings than children who are exposed to outdoor activities. Few of the parents did attend Elizabeth Goodenough's lecture at OU, they were very excited to share their thoughts , when i asked them what do you think of outdoor play? I have used a questionnaire for the parents. compilation of these interviews are still in progress. i have used the following questionnaire:

1. What do you think by term play?
2. why is play important for children?
3 what kind of play you recommend for children?
4. what do you think of outdoor play vs indoor play?
5. What children should play outside?
6.Do you mind if your children play in dirt and explore nature?
7.Do you think out door play enhance social and emotional development of children?
8. what kind of play you play with your child/ren?
9.What does your child play at home with most?
10.What activities do you do together as family and do you go on picnics/camping as weather permitting?

I am getting very good response on this questionnaire.
parents who attended Elizabeth Goodenough 's lecture do go on camping every yr. They also very highly recommend outdoor exploration of nature for children. They think play is what make a child happy and creative. and opens up his mind and body. It is interesting to know parents point of view about play after knowing children's view.

Deer tracks and deer poop

It was interesting to observe children outdoors and how excited they were on finding that deers are coming near house. As we were talking about animals going in hibernation.When spring comes they wake up and come out of their houses and go find food.In our back yard we go on a nature walk and find all nature stuff there.Some times we think it's cold and there are no trees and nothing outside but ,among all this kind of weather and environment children still do see a lot and find lot of material to explore. We adults have to assist them and provide food for their thoughts. As in this video you will notice one child asks me for my camera and wanted to take pictures of his own choice. So i did give him the camera and he took very nice shots and he always enjoys taking pictures from my camera. he is 3 1/2 yrs old.I hope you all enjoy the deer poop exploration.

Refrences:-

Burris, Kathleen Glascott. "Preschoolers' Play Behaviors With Peers in Classroom and Playground Settings. (Research Into Practice)." Journal of Research in Childhood Education 15.2 (Spring-Summer 2001): 270(2). General OneFile. Gale. Rochester Hills Public Library. 21 Mar. 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS
.
Gale Document Number:A80711104




Dunn, Judy and Hughes, Claire (mar/April 2001). “ I got some Swords and You’re Dead!” Violent Fantasy, Antisocial Behavior, Friendship, and Moral Sensibility in Young Children. Child development, Vol. 72, No; 2, PG 491-505

Goodenough, E.(2007)where do Children play? Ruth mott Foundation, Michigan Television

Goodenough ,E. (2008) . Aplace for play. Published by The national Institute for Play.

Greenfield, Cheryl. "What is it about the monkey bars?(playing outdoors)(Report)." Early Childhood Folio 11 (Annual 2007): 31(5). Academic OneFile. Gale. Rochester Hills Public Library. 21 Mar. 2009
.
Gale Document Number:A175444924



Keefer, Laura,R., (2006) Defiant Behavior in Two-and Three-yrs-olds: A Vygotskian Approach. Early Child hood Education Journal.Vol.33.No.2.EJ74027
http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ747027&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ747027



Lowell,C. Beyond The Lorax? The Greening of the American
Curriculum, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 90, No. 03, November 2008, pp.
218-222.
http://www.pdkmembers.org/members_online/publications/Archive/pdf/k

Levenson, L. Richard, and Herman, Jack (1991). THE USE OF ROLE PLAYING AS A TECHNIQUE IN THE PSYCHOTHERAPY OF CHILDREN. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, practice, Training American Psychological Association. Vol. 28, No. 4


Spinard, T,L., Eisenberg,N., Harris, E., Hanish,L., Fabes,R,A., Kupanoff,K., Ringwald,S., and Holmes,J. (2004). The Relation of Children’s Everyday Nonsocial Peer Play behavior to Their emotionality, Regulation, and Social Functioning. Developmental Psychology, Vol.40, No. 1, 67-80.

my reference list which is growing very fast as i am reading lot of articles and books related to my subject.

Importance of out door play.

After meeting with Shannan and my group members the other day and discussing about my research topic, Experience with nature and out door play promotes social and emotional development. It is exciting and overwhelming when i come to know of so much about the importance of outdoor play. As i have been encouraging and supportive to outdoor play and experience with nature of children. When i went to Italy last year and learned a lot about Reggio approach.basically in Reggio approach they let the children experience nature a lot, and children learn through nature. Teachers make daily plans according to children's aptitudes and they are children led activities. I learned there how children are more involved in learning with natural resources. When i returned ,i attended Lella Gandini's & Jeanne Goldhaber's lectures at WSU, both emphasized on outdoor play and how to document them. Also out door play is more beneficial for children in social and emotional developmental aspects along with other aspects of development. As our lives are getting busier with the passage of time, we are neglecting our future generation. We adults provide all kind of toys and video games to our children but deprive them of environment and nature.

Journal #3 playing outdoors and children's view/interview quetions.

Journal # 3
After meeting with all my group members and Shannan, my thoughts became much clear about the interviewing a child.When i read the chapter 5&6 it was helpful to me to understand to be a good interviewer of children.A good interviewer possess following qualities,
Characteristics of a good interviewer
*develops rapport with youth.
*genuinely demonstrates empathy with youth.
*Calms an anxious,shy,or hostile young person.
*Invites and responds to youth questions and concerns during the interview.
*Allows the youth to participate in setting the direction of and strategies within the interview.
*uses appropriate language and sentence structure.
*Ask open ended questions and follow up questions to encourage youth to tell their story.
*and most important, Gets an interview back on track when a young person becomes fixated on one question or responds in a silly way.
as well as the questions to be asked can be useful if they are:
1. Direct and personal.
2. Indirect and concerte.
3,Indirect,personal,concrete,and connected to emotions.
from all of this information i felt very confident in developing a format of interviewing children in my day care.
I used photoelicitation technique of interviewing because the age of my day care children is 2 1/2 yrs to 3 1/2 yrs.
and in this age they usually get diverted from one situation to another very quickly.
But when i showed them the out door and indoor activities in which they were involved, they just got very interested in recalling the events and talked about it freely and openly. They were all very excited when i asked them
1. what were you doing in this picture do you remember?
2. along with talking about the events i asked them did you enjoy in the snow when you were making snow balls? I instantly got the attention of Tommy and 3 1/2 yrs old and he was very eager to answer and tell the story of incidents in his words. He said, " Remember when we were playing with glue and we made paper plates for mommy",(paper Musche')so i asked did you enjoy working with glue? he said , "yeah" but it was very sticky". "but i like it appi, i made plate for mommy".next when he saw the pictures on tree in fall time and in winter, he laughed and said, " i like it outside appi"and lets go outside now.I asked but we did have fun making plates didn't we? you said you had fun doing that. so did you have more fun out side or inside? Instantly he replied, " outside".I like that tree it's like my horse" i said where is your teacher and he laughed , said , "you were taking pictures appi". hahha." you don't remember"." remember when we went outside in snow it was cold and i ate snow". i asked did you enjoy more in snow or when snow was not there.He replied , 'I like it outside" we had fun all time".he said, It was cold in winter, remember we had plastic bag because i did not have boots." i laughed because it was true, he forgot to bring snow boots and we put plastic bags on his shoes and he was all set.
I had following questions in my mind on the basis i made him talk and although he did talk about his different experiences related to these incidents.and lately we did go out and tracked the deer hoof tracks and deer poop. when we did see the video i made, Tommy was very excited to share his experiences.
The questions i had in my mind were,

1.Do you like to play indoors or outdoors?

2.what do you enjoy most outside?Like to play on slide,trees, sand box,running and playing What do you like?

3.Why do you like to play outdoors or indoors?(i asked according to child's previous answer)

4.What does your teacher do with you outside?

5.Do you like to play alone or with your friends outside?

6.What is your favortie play   indoors?

7. If you cannot go outside because of weather what do you play with your friends, or do you like to play alone?

8.Do you enjoy playing indors as much you enjoy playing outdoors.

9.what do you play with your mom and dad, do you like going on picnics and nature walks?

I noticed children are more tolerant while playing outdoors with their friends and they are more playing in groups and sharing better. through all the information i learned, i enjoy more interacting and interviewing children in different ways.But with young ones drawing and photoelicitation approach seems very much workable with young children.