Birds
do it.
Kittens
do it.
Even
chimpanzee
In
the zoo do it.
Why
can’t
Little
children
Do
it, too?
PLAY! That beautiful little four letter word
that is at the heart of childhood, but is sadly disappearing. What most adults don’t realize is that
play is NOT a frivolous waste of time.
PLAY is the child’s WORK and play is how young children learn best! It’s also the teachers’ work to be
ADVOCATES FOR PLAY! The more you
know about play, the more you can align it to standards and what is best for
children. If you’ll go to my June
article on my website you’ll find my “Cliff Notes PLAY Book.”
Froebel had the right idea
over 150 years when he created “children’s gardens.” Before you can grow anything, you have to work long and hard
to prepare the soil. Before
children can grow into creative, well-adjusted, happy adults, we have to
prepare the soil in their gardens.
Singing, dancing, running outside, pretending, building, laughing,
exploring…these are the essential ingredients for young children that will
create the rich soil from which they will grow the rest of their lives.
Every child deserves
time. Time to play, space to play,
open-ended materials to explore, and friends to play with! They need time to develop their
imaginations, bodies, and creativity.
Play is not a luxury or a spectator sport! Play can build childhood memories of JOY, DELIGHT,
RELATIONSHIPS, and FUN! Memories
that will serve them well as they travel through their lives!
This quote kept coming up in
my brain as I studied about play:
People
don’t stop playing because they grow old.
They
grow old because they stop playing!
Maybe we, too, need to play
a little more and do things that bring us joy and make us happy!
