My Connections to Play

“Play is the highest form of research.” – Albert Einstein

Growing up I had three of the best "toys" EVER; cousins you call them. My grandma tells the story like this..."I waited so long to have my first grandchild, and then it seemed like every nine months there was another one."  We were like the four amigos, the four musketeers, where one went we all went.  We didn't need anything or anyone else, just us and the streams, rivers, and things we'd find around the yard or campsite; maybe a dirt pile or two. When one of us got hurt, we all cried--that's when we needed a little adult support. Other than that we pretty much just did our own thing, as much as preschoolers could do back then.  I can remember this all the way up through our teens. We had everything we needed to entertain ourselves for hours; days even and almost nothing came from a store or had a "set" way to play. 

Fast forward 35 years and play has changed somewhat.  Gone are the days of being unplugged.  Our children are bombarded by bells, lights and whistles, play dates, structured  organized sporting events and movement classes.  Our children's toys have all but eliminated face to face social interactions and have created a whole new language (text ease--much of which I don't speak or understand). My  biggest worry as a child was who would catch the first fish.  Today's children are dealing with a whole new tragedy--Nature Deficit Disorder. As a child my back yard extended from one end of the block to the other, today's children have only the space contained between each side of the six foot privacy fence.  Imagination is a thing of the past. Between the story lines of the television or video games our children don't have to think about anything, it's all spoon fed to them.

Because play is the essential work of young children we must ensure that our children have the opportunity to participate in true and genuine play that they and they alone have engineered, constructed and imagined. Through play, children can explore their senses, how their body works, how to create and sustain relationships, and emotional regulation. They are also able to explore academic concepts like math, sciences, art, language, literacy, music and physical skills. Play is a low pressure, safe way for children to explore, engage and interact with the world around them and the people in it. 

As an advocate for children and quality childhoods I turn to Magda Gerber for her timeless words of wisdom, I encourage you to do the same. When creating play environments for children remember that "active toys make passive children, and passive toys make active children." 

What might that look like? I'm glad you asked lets take a look...

**photos courtesy of Pinterest 

As you can see children are actively engaged with non commercial materials that do not tell the children how to play with them, the children create ways to play. By choosing open ended "loose parts" we can create opportunities for children to develop complex play schemes that allow children to work on "whole" child learning.  


“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” – George Bernard Shaw