Rather than argue why rigor and play are not opposing ideas or camps in early childhood education (see Rigor in Play, Part 1), isn’t the best way to demonstrate the point, simply to show HOW we achieve rigor through play?
To do so, let’s pull out some of the key elements from our educational definition of rigor. Let’s start with challenging.
Ensuring that children’s play is challenging requires a few things from us (maybe even challenging ourselves first).