Albert Einstein discovered his love for learning while ill. He spent hours playing with a magnetic compass, wanting to know how and why it worked. This led to his desire to find out how things work. Children continue to learn this way today. Through play, they discover new things. In fact, science shows play helps enrich learning while allowing children to develop important skills such as experimentation. How can parents and childcare providers encourage this love of learning in children?
Meaningful Play
Meaningful play allows children to learn as they engage in activities they enjoy. Parents and childcare providers should allow children to choose what they want to do. The child needs something that is fun and enjoyable for them, so they will want to explore and learn more, and this meaningful play provides it. They may draw friends in to help them with their capers, which allows them to learn teamwork. When they share what they did with others, they improve their expression skills. Childcare facilities, such as Grow with Us Learning Academy (https://growwithuslearning.com/navarre-child-care-services/), often use meaningful play to allow children to thrive.
Adults should not give the child a script to follow. The activity should evolve spontaneously, driven by intrinsic motivation. Children need a place where they can experiment and learn new things, while adults sit back and ensure they remain safe as they explore. The child actively takes part rather than watching other people do things.
During this meaningful play, children develop rules. A child may develop these rules on their own or come together with others to create rules everyone agrees on. At times, the children choose someone to lead them in different tasks. Children learn as they go through this process.
Learning Through Play
Children don’t learn the same way adults do. They must engage with items and people as well as their own feelings to grow and learn. Their imagination plays a large role in learning at a young age, as play brings together the creative and logical elements of the brain. When adults learn, they often do so while sitting. They may listen to a lecture, read a book, play a podcast, or something of that nature. Children, in contrast, often use their entire body when learning.
The children may dance, run, or climb while taking in new information. This allows them to develop their muscles while fine-tuning their motor skills. Mental and emotional muscles also expand when children play. They use their imagination to create elaborate fantasy worlds and implement rules for these worlds, ones that dictate how the play will occur.
When children play, they learn to regulate their emotions, according to researchers at the University of Denver. In addition, they discover they must think before they act. As they pretend to be someone else, they must stop and consider how their actions will correlate with how this imaginary person would act in different situations. Doing so helps them build their social skills on their way to becoming adults who adapt to various environments.
Classroom Play and Why it is so Important
Play in the classroom helps children learn and grow. Much like inquiry-based learning, teacher-initiated play benefits children, as it allows the children to make connections in the world using what they already know. A play-based approach enables teachers to bring subjects together so children learn more. With this technique, the children develop critical thinking skills, language abilities, and more. Their knowledge expands while they boost their social-emotional awareness. They do so without even realizing it.
The teacher should guide students but do so in a manner that allows them to learn at their own pace. When children have the opportunity to ask questions about what interests them, they are more likely to retain the information. Play opportunities allow them to try new things and build their problem-solving skills in the process while working collaboratively to find the best solution. Structured experimentation should be part of their play as well.
Children should also have time to engage in dramatic play. They can act out scenes from books the teacher has read and express themselves while doing so. This allows them to take the part of a character and see things from that character’s perspective while boosting their social confidence. They also gain more from the story that was read to them.
The Teacher’s Role
When a childcare center brings together guided play with open-ended play opportunities, children thrive. The childcare team needs to involve children as much as possible. From turning the pages while reading a book to talking about the book when it ends, teachers allow the students to take part in each activity and build associations. Teachers may also ask the children to guess what will happen next and engage their curiosity.
Learning should never be a formal activity for young children. In fact, many educators are discovering play has its place in older classrooms. By giving children opportunities to explore, ask questions, and experiment, teachers find the kids learn more. They are engaged and excited about what they are doing and it helps them to retain the information.
The Parent’s Role
When choosing a childcare facility, parents need to ask about the curriculum the center follows. If every minute of the day is planned out for the child, they won’t get to try new things and learn on their own. While there should be some structure for the children, within this structure should be time for play. Each child differs in terms of how they learn. Using this method ensures children find some way to engage in the material, and parents should implement similar strategies at home to help their children learn.
Parents may feel as if their children need to spend at least part of each day sitting at a table or desk learning letters, numbers, and other basic facts. However, neuroscientists have found that children can gain this same knowledge while playing. In fact, children learn more grammar when they play while learning. The act of playing engages the whole brain rather than one or two parts. Never assume frolicking is frivolous and the childcare provider is wasting time and money by allowing the children to engage in unstructured activities. Children who have these opportunities thrive, as they are learning while having fun. Who doesn’t like that?
