Children need to play, it teaches them to control their body, builds social relationships, and strengthens resilience. But how they play and why is different styles equally important, and I don’t mean the stages that we’ve looked at before.
Since childcare is an industry wherein you need a 18 month long qualification to work, we are taught that children need adult influence to learn. An adult has the prior knowledge and experience to at least know where to find the answers to their questions. We are also taught that that teaching shouldn’t be done in a classroom setting rather, they should learn thought play. This concept is called intentional teaching, answering the questions that children ask though the creatives experiences they work though whilst engaged in an activity. Whilst as intentional teaching is important it’s not always the best way to learn. This approach puts focus on children participating in guided play around a topic of interest, but doesn’t teach children to play independently.
Intentional teaching puts focus on an adult, or the teacher, being engaged with the child in the play. That play should be directed by the child but guided by the teacher so the child is driving but the teacher is reading the map. That’s the expected relationship mostly because educators who are having conversations with children look better to parents apparently, and the parents pay the bills. However, teaching children to play independently it not only more natural for them, it teaches them independence and critical thinking skills. Think about it, all children should be able to join a workforce someday, yet young children are reliant on parents for everything, any little bit of independence is a start toward learning to adult.
This is why I like independent play, Having a child play independently is not about a child playing on their own rather a child playing without adult influence. Don’t get me wrong you still need to supervise your child’s play and be there to answer questions but the better they get at independent play, the less you have to do that. Independent play flexes a muscle that children growing up in Early Childhood Education and Care facilities don’t get to flex all that often. It teaches them problem solving skills that are vital for them to gain independence, no good parent wants their child to be dependant on them for ever.
They don’t have to play independently on their own either, peer to peer play is where multiple children of the same age are playing together independently. This is great for developing those social skills and emotional regulation that school readiness is all about. Again children, especially young children who attend long hours childcare services, need to learn these skills before leaving for ‘big school’ which for a lot of children is a big test of everything they’ve leant thus far in life.
I’m not saying play with a caregiver isn’t important. Those intentional teaching moments can play an important role in developing their understanding of social norms and safe behaviours, keeping them safe in the long run. It can pass on information, it can teach emotional regulation, it can show them what’s acceptable in society. But is can’t replace the independence and learning that comes form playing on their own. Intentional teaching has it’s place but it shouldn’t overshadow what children are ment to do, figure it out for themselves. I keep on saying it, kids are smart, as adults we underestimate how smart children are. As grown ups, we need to give them space to show us up every once in a while.
Last but not least, activity of the week.
Pasta art is great for fine motor skills, they have to pick up, glue and then place the pasta pice by pice. Here’s how to do it.
You will need:
Pasta
Food dye
PVA glue
Paper
Dye your pasta using the instructions on our activity cookbook page. place your PVA glue in a pot with a paint brush and set out your coloured pasta. encourage your child to select one pice of pasta, paint on a thick layer of glue and place it onto the paper.