關於 why learning through play is important ，我們在網路上蒐集到這些相關的討論、資訊與評價

Halfway through 2021.. (a pretty lengthy post)

It's a time to remind me to relook at my goals and focus again😌 This would mean there will be some changes in my social media content and choosing what is good for me. Focusing on my work, trying to stabilize it and setting out the new plans.

Now when it comes to my kids... at every stage of their life, I'm always learning how to handle them and making changes to how we can all improve. Recently, I have adopted a reward point system, which I was against it previously. WHY?🤔 Because I did not feel the need to reward something which I feel that it's their responsibility or duty?

Sometimes, we do need to take a step back and try if it works WHEN ALL ELSE FAIL 🤣. Like I always tell my kid, "If you never try, you will never know."

So I started the rewards system. Initially, I used an app (@wearesmoresup) that was shared in my IGS, but I encountered a problem. I did not allow my kids to use gadgets, so the app became pointless even though I really love it and how I wish they have web version too.

Anyway, back to rewards, so I set the rules even on basic stuff, so they can feel that goals are easily achievable which in turns helps to motivate them on tougher work.

Steps on making rewards work
1. Give each other a time of adaptation (磨合期), like a week. So you will know what to adjust and the kids know how the system works.
2. Points are rewarded when they do it automatically. Once you have to remind them, they will not be rewarded any points.
3. Be fair. Especially if u have more than 1 child, both tasks and consequences are to set the same, unless the age gap are too big.
4. Encourage them to help remind each other on the task they need to do.
5. Pin it up at the living room or place where they spent most of their time.
6. Give simple rewards, like extra TV time, play time, outdoor activity instead of toys all the way.

I set their rewards according to the points. So whenever they hit the points, they can redeem it. So example:

Extra play time 20 points
Superpark 150 points
Science Centre 50 points

so if they have 200 points, they can choose to redeem any of the rewards above.

Ok, that's about the rewards. Here comes the schedule.

All along, I did the schedule just for myself and one to put outside. But this time round, I made a slight change, I do for the girls too. So each one of them have their own schedule chart. They will have to follow the schedule that is given to them.

It's just less than 5 days of trying how this whole thing works, but so far I have seen slight improvement especially on Xin He. No more screaming at her to wake up in the morning. That's is very important, because we all want to start our day nice. 🤭

When I shared about the rewards and schedule in my IGs, many people has requested for my template, so I have put up the template here lnk.bio/missyqiqi. Feel free to download and use it. Hope it helps, and welcome any suggestions or ideas 💡 that we can all improve together!

- Hôm nay chúng ta cùng luyện 1 bài đọc và xem những từ vựng hay trong bài đó nha.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN'S PLAY

Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale turrets and fire-breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she's creating an enchanting world. Although she isn't aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it will have important repercussions in her adult life.

wicked (adj): độc ác;
gallant (adj): dũng cảm
enchanting (adj): mê hoặc;
repercussion (n): kết quả

Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her younger brother. When she bosses him around as his 'teacher', she's practising how to regulate her emotions through pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle down with a board game, she's learning about the need to follow rules and take turns with a partner.

abandon (v): bỏ rơi
regulate (v): điều chỉnh

'Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,' says Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK. 'It underpins how we develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults and is
crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.'

achievement (n): thành quả
intellectual (n): người trí thức

Recognising the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Plato extolled its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and ideas about play-based learning have been developing since the 19th century.
But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in play, pointing out that over half the people in the world now live in cities. 'The opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce,' he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as parents' increased wish to protect their children from being the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on 'earlier is better' which is leading to greater competition in academic learning and schools.
International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to develop policies concerned with children's right to play, and to consider implications for leisure facilities and educational programmes. But what they often lack is the evidence to base policies on.

mindful (adj): quan tâm
scarce (adj): ít
perception (n): quan điểm
implication (n): ngụ ý

'The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and unpredictable - but, as soon as you ask a five-year-old "to play", then you as the researcher have intervened,' explains Dr Sara Baker. 'And we want to know what the long-term impact of play is. It's a real challenge.' Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of how and why play is important have been looked at, there is very little data on the impact it has on the child's later life.
Now, thanks to the university's new Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played by play in how a child develops.
'A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children's self-control,' explains Baker. 'This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking processes - it influences how effectively we go about undertaking challenging activities.'

spontaneous (adj): bất ngờ
unpredictable (adj): không thể đoán được
impact (n): ảnh hưởng possibility (n): khả năng
self-control (n): tự kiểm soát

In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that children with greater self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific reasoning. 'This sort of evidence makes us think that giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-solvers in the long run.'
If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it could be extremely significant for educational practices, because the ability to self-regulate has been shown to be a key predictor of academic performance.
Gibson adds: 'Playful behaviour is also an important indicator of healthy social and emotional development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can�give us important clues about their well-being and can even be useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.'

toddler (n): trẻ mới biết đi
pre-schooler (n): trẻ nhỏ tuổi
unfamiliar (adj): không quen thuộc facilitate (n): tạo điều kiện cho
diagnosis (n): chẩn đoán
autism (n): tự kỷ

Bài đọc trích từ Cambridge IELTS 14, ai chưa có bộ Cam này không?

⛔ LUYỆN READING NÀO ⛔

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHILDREN'S PLAY

Brick by brick, six-year-old Alice is building a magical kingdom. Imagining fairy-tale turrets and fire-breathing dragons, wicked witches and gallant heroes, she's creating an enchanting world. Although she isn't aware of it, this fantasy is helping her take her first steps towards her capacity for creativity and so it will have important repercussions in her adult life.
Minutes later, Alice has abandoned the kingdom in favour of playing schools with her younger brother. When she bosses him around as his 'teacher', she's practising how to regulate her emotions through pretence. Later on, when they tire of this and settle down with a board game, she's learning about the need to follow rules and take turns with a partner.

'Play in all its rich variety is one of the highest achievements of the human species,' says Dr David Whitebread from the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge, UK. 'It underpins how we develop as intellectual, problem-solving adults and is crucial to our success as a highly adaptable species.'
Recognising the importance of play is not new: over two millennia ago, the Greek philosopher Plato extolled its virtues as a means of developing skills for adult life, and ideas about play-based learning have been developing since the 19th century.

But we live in changing times, and Whitebread is mindful of a worldwide decline in play, pointing out that over half the people in the world now live in cities. 'The opportunities for free play, which I experienced almost every day of my childhood, are becoming increasingly scarce,' he says. Outdoor play is curtailed by perceptions of risk to do with traffic, as well as parents' increased wish to protect their children from being the victims of crime, and by the emphasis on 'earlier is better' which is leading to greater competition in academic learning and schools.

International bodies like the United Nations and the European Union have begun to develop policies concerned with children's right to play, and to consider implications for leisure facilities and educational programmes. But what they often lack is the evidence to base policies on.

'The type of play we are interested in is child-initiated, spontaneous and unpredictable- but, as soon as you ask a five-year-old "to play", then you as the researcher have intervened,' explains Dr Sara Baker. 'And we want to know what the long-term impact of play is. It's a real challenge.'

Dr Jenny Gibson agrees, pointing out that although some of the steps in the puzzle of how and why play is important have been looked at, there is very little data on the impact it has on the child's later life.

Now, thanks to the university's new Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), Whitebread, Baker, Gibson and a team of researchers hope to provide evidence on the role played by play in how a child develops.

'A strong possibility is that play supports the early development of children's self-control,' explains Baker. 'This is our ability to develop awareness of our own thinking processes - it influences how effectively we go about undertaking challenging activities.'

In a study carried out by Baker with toddlers and young pre-schoolers, she found that children with greater self-control solved problems more quickly when exploring an unfamiliar set-up requiring scientific reasoning. 'This sort of evidence makes us think that giving children the chance to play will make them more successful problem-solvers in the long run.'

If playful experiences do facilitate this aspect of development, say the researchers, it could be extremely significant for educational practices, because the ability to self-regulate has been shown to be a key predictor of academic performance.

Gibson adds: 'Playful behaviour is also an important indicator of healthy social and emotional development. In my previous research, I investigated how observing children at play can�give us important clues about their well-being and can even be useful in the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders like autism.'

Whitebread's recent research has involved developing a play-based approach to supporting children's writing. 'Many primary school children find writing difficult, but we showed in a previous study that a playful stimulus was far more effective than an instructional one.' Children wrote longer and better-structured stories when they first played with dolls representing characters in the story. In the latest study, children first created their story with Lego*, with similar results. 'Many teachers commented that they had always previously had children saying they didn't know what to write about. With the Lego building, however, not a single child said this through the whole year of the project.'

Whitebread, who directs PEDAL, trained as a primary school teacher in the early 1970s, when, as he describes, 'the teaching of young children was largely a quiet backwater, untroubled by any serious intellectual debate or controversy.' Now, the landscape is very different, with hotly debated topics such as school starting age.

'Somehow the importance of play has been lost in recent decades. It's regarded as something trivial, or even as something negative that contrasts with "work". Let's not lose sight of its benefits, and the fundamental contributions it makes to human achievements in the arts, sciences and technology. Let's make sure children have a rich diet of play experiences.'

⛔ CÂU HỎI:

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

1. Children with good self-control are known to be likely to do well at school later on.
2. The way a child plays may provide information about possible medical problems.
3. Playing with dolls was found to benefit girls’ writing more than boys’ writing.
4. Children had problems thinking up ideas when they first created the story with Lego.
5. People nowadays regard children’s play as less significant than they did in the past.

(Trích Cam 14)

⛔ HIGHLIGHT TỪ VỰNG

Possibility (n): Khả năng
Self-control (n): Tự kiểm soát
Toddler (n): Trẻ mới biết đi
Pre-schooler (n): Trẻ nhỏ tuổi
Unfamiliar (adj): Không quen thuộc
Facilitate (v): Tạo điều kiện cho
Diagnosis (n): Chẩn đoán
Autism (n): Tự kỷ
Approach (n): Phương pháp
Stimulus (n): Sự kích thích
Serious (adj): Nghiêm túc
Debate (v): Tranh luận
Trivial (adj): Tầm thường
Fundamental (adj): Cơ bản
Contribution (n): Sự đóng góp

Các bạn làm đề nhé, cô chia sẻ đáp án dưới cmt nha!