How to Teach Our Children?

The article Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control? discusses the idea and rationale behind constructive play and how increasing a child's executive thinking it more critical than academic learning in pre-k & kindergarten aged children. Research is being done to support the idea that a child's self-regulation skills, control over their emotions and cognitive impulses, can be a better predictor of academic achievement and success than IQ scores. These executive skills can be taught through structured play; an example from the article is students pretending to go to the grocery store and having to remember what's on their list. The studies are showing strong support, but it's difficult to determine if the correlation is in fact causation since it's difficult to single out one single approach.
As a mother of a 10 month old, it wasn't long ago that my husband and I were touring daycare centers for our son. Of course, we were looking for somewhere safe & clean but it was also important that we find somewhere that had an established curriculum, incorporated learning into the children's play time and would introduce some structure into the daily routine.
Much like the article we felt these characteristics would foster a nurturing environment for our son; for us it was about the environment that would entice, encourage and support his learning rather than specific exercises or lesson plans. Is this a new concept? I would argue no; I think it's going back to the basics. In my opinion, parents today put too many pressures & set unrealistic expectation on their children hoping to raise the next professional athlete or award winning scholar. We all have dreams for our children, but is teaching a child to read at 10 months or starting them in a training program before they can walk the strategy to success?