Play

One of the joys of being a grandparent is watching your grandchild grow and develop. When a person is the parent he/she is so busy and life is usually so hectic that things are notice but there is often not enough time to contemplate and savor.
Several educators, who are grandparents along with me, find great joy in sharing what we observe. It is amazing and natural what young children learn in their play- let me repeat that- it is amazing and natural what young children learn in their play.
The following is from 2 generations- 30 years apart. I was working on my masters in early childhood when I started watching my children’s play in more than a casual way. I remember writing about my son’s (age 3) interest in watching a reflection on the wall from mirror. The shine of course caught his attention. He then started moving the mirror and realized there was a connection between the mirror and the reflection on the wall and he controlled it by moving the mirror. He spent quite a few minutes moving the mirror and watching the light reflect around the room. He was problem solving, making connections, and recognizing cause and effect. All this was done during “play”.
What brought this to mind was watching my 28 month old grandson do some playing this weekend. He loves animals and has learned the names of many. He can identify them in pictures as well as 3 dimensional figures and yes at the zoo and farm. We keep a collection of animals at our house for his pleasure. He was busy this weekend moving the animals around the house in different ways. He realized how many he could carry at once and he seemed to have plans as he moved them from one place to the next. He also seemed to leave some in certain ways. He was sorting, categorizing (he put the dinosaurs in a different place than the rest of the animals as well as having different groups), and recognizing the conservation theory (a solid object is the same no matter how you set it or hold it). Vulture and eagle were kept together. In his pile of cards he found the only two cards that matched the animals grandpa had made. All of this is the beginning of problem solving, making connections, transferring knowledge and recognizing live animals are represented in many ways. He is just beginning to make sentences but I could hear him say the animal names hence not only developing vocabulary but realizing that those sounds in a certain order stand for something and that he can communicate. The adults give him a few words to identify what he had done but mostly let him explore. He was persistent, this moving of his animals involved activity that he focused on in some form for much of the day. Like an adult he stopped for an “os” break and took a minute to check out some trucks but then returned to his animals. There is longevity in his play
When he returns days later, he remembers and uses what he has learned and/or tries something new with his animals. He has a platform of information and experiences that he can verbalize as well as concepts he has no words for yet-that nonverbal learning.
The importance of play! Don’t take these invaluable experiences away from our children. Give them the time and various materials to exam, control, investigate and experience. That play/experimentation/interaction/problem solving/repetition of experience is learning. Play is the beginning of that foundation of experience and knowledge every child needs to build upon for life.