My Connections to Play
"Creative play is central activity in the lives of healthy children. Play helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it." (Almon, 2002) All children need the freedom to have meaningful play experiences. Play supports physical, cognitive, language, social, and emotional development.
"Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn." ~O. Fred Donaldson
As a child, I loved being outside. Growing up on a farm in Iowa, the outdoors was our playground. We would start out early in the morning, packed with random items and no specific plan. My siblings were my main playmates. We would head to the grove area that surrounded our farm. Vast evergreen trees became the foundation for our play. We would find empty containers, bring rope or twine, chalk, scarves, and boxes and we would have all we needed for the day. I specifically remember collecting containers of the pine needles, using them to make our pretend soup, form our beds, or make items to sell in our shop. My siblings and I would create huts with sticks and twine. I would use chalk to make signs and make maps to search for treasure. My mom would let us use her old scarves. These scarves would turn into our blankets, curtains, tablecloths, awnings, etc.
When we couldn't get outdoors, our play didn't stop. We would spend hours using boxes in our play. A box was a blank canvas ready for our imagination. We would spend hours playing in boxes, turning them into many things. My siblings and I would also spend time making indoor forts. Using our existing furniture, blankets, and scarves, we would create hours of fun while problem solving and working together.
Looking back at my experiences, I feel my play was encouraged and supported. My parents would allow us time, provide us open-ended materials, and the independence to explore, create, and problem solve. My siblings and I would come up with some very big ideas. I remember approaching my father with our plan. He never laughed or said our ideas were impossible, rather he would help us gather materials and throw out some suggestions as we dug in to carry out our plan. I don't remember any of our big ideas ever being very successful. But knowing what I know now, I was learning. Learning about working together, negotiating, sharing, self-advocating, and making decisions. We were able to make mistakes and learn how to recover from them. My parents would observe and offer guidance when needed.
In the developmentally appropriate early childhood settings of today, play is encouraged and supported through open-ended materials and follow the interests of the child. Adults know when to step into a child's play and when it is important for them to just observe. Children are being exposed to project-based learning, where through their play they are exploring answers to their own questions and building and creating while learning things that are important to them. Unfortunately, there are many settings that are choosing to use teaching methods that are not play-based. Children are being exposed to teacher-directed strategies that are developmentally inappropriate at earlier ages. Their time for creative play is being reduced. Recess and outdoor play is being cut due to the push for academic learning. Electronic devices are replacing boxes, scarves, the outdoors, etc. We must advocate for the need for play.
"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning." ~Mr. Fred Rogers
Play is crucial to development. My definition of play is any activity that is freely chosen, intrinsically motivated, and self-directed. All humans need time for play.
"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." ~George Bernard Shaw
No matter your age--- Make sure you make time to PLAY!!!!
References:
Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved fromhttp://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf
Melisa,
ReplyDeleteI can remember as a child making forts all the time. My mother was always one to allow me and my sister to have the space we needed to create our forts, even when it took up her whole living room. We loved using anything that we could find for our play.
Your post made me think about how most children love to play wit large boxes. I love when parents bring these in, its a great opportunity to have the children decide what they would like to make out of the box, and come up with the plans to carry it out.
I also agree that it is so unfortunate that children are losing more play time as a result of standards. I have even seen this in the 4K classes.
Cindy
Hello Melissa, I can relate to your siblings being your main play mates. My siblings were also the main people I played with as a child. The picture you included of the indoor fort reminded me of the indoor forts we use to build as a child. These forts could get very extensive. We would set up chairs and other items in the bedroom and cover them with as many blankets as we could find. Once the fort was complete you had to crawl through tunnels we had created, and there were a few different areas. Sometimes these forts were castles, other times they were houses. No adults could have fit if they wanted to. My mom encouraged this type of play and never made us take the fort down until it was time for bed and we needed the room again. Even though we had very little adult supervision and adults never entered the fort we were able to learn a lot on our own. For example; architecture, how to work as a team and generate ideas, geometry, and how to take on roles and follow rules. If adults would have been able to enter I believe it would have hindered our play and learning experiences.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog especially looking at the pictures of children enjoying an open-ended play. I remember the time whenever we received our Lakeshore orders that came in with several boxes. I would keep the box and gave it to the Preschoolers and told them to 'decorate' it. They used markers and painted all over it. They spent about an hour and enjoyed painting and drawing random pictures on it! This goes to tell, we don't need super fancy things to provide our kids to have fun during playtime. They get creative when they are in a relaxed atmosphere and given opportunity to be themselves.
ReplyDeleteMelissa,
ReplyDeleteYour Blog was amazing, I really enjoyed reading. I remember doing a lot of the creative house and tent building growing up. In my home my parents encouraged us to be creative and imagine. I just wish that I had pictures to share with my little girl.
I enjoyed your blog and your pictures. Reading everyones blogs is just making me miss being a kid. Remembering my childhood plays has just brought a sense of peace. Having no worries and just being fee to play and do what we wanted. Like you I used my imagination so much as a child. We would go outside and just make up games with what ever we had at that moment. Kick the can was a favorite game of mine and at times we didn't even have a can so we would use something else and figure out how to play with what we had. We used our imagination, we used problem solving skills and not even realzing it. All of these things we learned through play.
ReplyDelete