The article is about about playing with math. There's no lecturing or grading, just exploring and trying puzzles.
In that context, your claim is that playing with a knife is just as good as playing with math, that singing nonsense songs is just as good as singing the alphabet song. The kid has fun either way, but one style of play will lead to a kid who is a confident learner, and the other will lead to a kid who gets frustrated at school and thinks he is not as smart as his peers.
In that context, your claim is that playing with a knife is just as good as playing with math, that singing nonsense songs is just as good as singing the alphabet song. The kid has fun either way, but one style of play will lead to a kid who is a confident learner, and the other will lead to a kid who gets frustrated at school and thinks he is not as smart as his peers.