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"This book reminds the reader about the reasons for children to play, using details that create a degree of suspense usually found in novels."
—From the Foreword by Doris Pronin Fromberg"‘But they’re only playing. When do you teach them?’ Analyzing richly detailed observations of children’s pretend play with peers and teachers’ strategies of stage-setting and intervention, Perry makes clear how teaching can become a mutual effort between the children and the teachers to support learning."
—Elizabeth Jones, Faculty, Human Development, Pacific Oaks College
"Well-written, engaging, and insightful. Jane Perry’s ethnography is an innovative and ground-breaking analysis of children’s free play based on the perspectives of both children and teachers. It is a major contribution to research on early childhood education."
—William A. Corsaro, Indiana University, Bloomington
" Early childhood teachers have long known that play contributes to children’s socio-emotional development. Outdoor Play provides a technique for analyzing the dynamics of child-teacher interaction as it changes over time."
—Millie Almy, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley
How do children make sense of their world? This engaging book adds keen insight into why outdoor play is a significant yet frequently overlooked aspect of young children’s development. Analyzing play within a framework of "initiation, negotiation, and enactment," Jane Perry not only shows how teachers can support self-directed pretend play, but also connects and illustrates theories of play and children’s culture.
