Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street, talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.

DEUTERONOMY 6: 6-8

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Learning Through Play
Play is one of the most powerful vehicles children have for trying out and mastering new skills, concepts, and experiences. Play can help children develop the knowledge they need to connect in meaningful ways to the challenges they encounter in school. Play also contributes to how children view themselves as learners. As they play, they resolve confusing social, emotional, and intellectual issues by coming up with new solutions and ideas. They experience the sense of power that comes from being in control and figuring things out on their own (something children often do not get to do in real life). This helps them develop a positive attitude toward learning.

Read more at fun.familyeducation.com

By Raising Children Network

Play is the way babies and children develop their sense of self, sense of the world, and sense of where they fit in. It starts with you, and – as children grow – widens to include playing with toys or objects and with others.

Playing with your child is one of the most wonderful things about being a parent. Play is child's work. It's a vital part of the way babies and children grow and learn.
The time you spend just having fun together:

• - provides a variety of learning opportunities
• - helps children learn to trust and depend on their parents
• - makes your child feel loved and secure, which helps her to develop
• - helps children integrate ideas as they learn to make sense of the world
• - helps you get to know each other and brings you closer.

The research on play
Research tells us that a child's environment and experiences – especially during the first three years – strongly influences her development.

• - Play is one of the best ways for your child to learn, whether it's a planned activity you set up for your child or 'freeflow' play where there's no plan and your child plays at her own pace. Experts say a balance of organised and freeflow play is best. 
• - Play tells you a lot about your child's personality and temperament.
• - Children get the most out of play if they have the chance to explore a range of activities that they are naturally drawn to.
• - Play is important for your child's developing self-esteem and social skills.
• - Playing with others increases your child's social competence – this is one of the advantages of playgroups and places such as child care and preschool.
• - Play helps children to develop an understanding of themselves and their own identity. Examples of this in action include:
  • • imitating facial expressions or movements at an early age
  • • becoming aware that it's herself she sees in the mirror (from around 15 months)
  • • enjoying and being fascinated by her body, which is all part of natural curiosity.  

Read more at raisingchildren.net

By Ellen Booth Church
Source: Scholastic Parents

Young children learn by imagining and doing. Have you ever watched your child pick up a stone and pretend it is a zooming car, or hop a Lego across the table as if it were a person or a bunny? Your child is using an object to represent something else while giving it action and motion. But this pretend play is not as simple as it may seem. The process of pretending builds skills in many essential developmental areas.
 
Preschool and kindergarten classrooms usually have a well-equipped dramatic play area, and this is quite intentional. Research has shown that pretend play provides children with a microcosm for life that encourages them to take the skills they have learned in classroom lessons and apply them to meaningful life activities. It is believed that this process of application helps your child not only develop a skill, but learn how to use it in life.

Read more at: scholastic.com

By Marilyn Lopes, Extension Specialist, Family Life Education Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC (1993) Creative play helps children grow. In M. Lopes (Ed.) CareGiver News (October, p. 3) Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Cooperative Extension

Every child is born with creative potential, but this potential may be stifled if care is not taken to nurture and stimulate creativity. Creativity shows one's uniqueness. It is the individual saying: "I can be; I can do." Isn't this what we want for our children? Creativity is the ability to see things in a new and unusual light, to see problems that no one else may even realize exist, and then come up with new, unusual, and effective solutions to these problems.

WAYS TO STRENGTHEN A CHILD'S CREATIVITY

Relax the controls. Adults who constantly exert supervision and control diminish the spontaneity and self-confidence that are essential to the creative spirit.

Inspire perseverance. All the creative energy in the world is useless if the product is not seen through to completion. Show appreciation for a child's efforts. Suppress the impulse to accomplish tasks for children.

Tolerate the "offbeat." Let children know that it is not always critical to have the "correct" answer to the problem - that novel, innovative, and unique approaches are valued as well.

Provide a creative atmosphere. Creative materials should be available to the young child for his use. Some of the basic equipment includes books, records, drawing materials, objects to make sounds with, clay, and blocks. Toys for imagining: Supply preschoolers with unstructured toys and materials. Provide the child with toys that can become a variety of things. Be careful about discouraging daydreaming. Daydreaming is really an imagery process. Some of what goes on in the name of daydreaming is really problem-solving.

Planning and problem-solving. Encourage creative problem solving in a variety of ways. Teach a youngster to look at alternatives, evaluate them, and then decide how to carry them out successfully.

Offer - but do not pressure. Resist the temptation to overcrowd children with organized activities in an attempt to cultivate their creativity. Allow the child time to be alone to develop the creativity that is innate in all of us.

Read more at creativityinstitute.com

Children’s books are primarily for entertainment and enjoyment.  They can also be an important teaching tool for a parent and can lend themselves to good family discussions and the support of critical thinking.  Occasionally, while reading to your child, look beyond just the pure enjoyment of the story to the possible lesson that could be learned.  Questions that can be used for any story include:

1. If you were in this story, who would you be?
2. What is your favorite part of this story?
3. If you could change the story, what would you change?
4. What might a different ending be?
5. What do you think we should remember from this story?

One caution: do not over-engage the child into always having to think of the meaning.  Some stories are to be read just for the joy of reading.  If you are using it for discussion, only ask a few questions---about as many as the child is old.

Our theme for the month of June is the importance of play in a child’s life.  Through undirected or free play, a child develops invaluable tools that he or she will use throughout their lives.  A child uses his imagination and creativity to solve problems, make decisions, negotiate, and to hopefully experience positive results.  Even when play doesn’t go so well, positive lessons for the future can be learned.  Here are some books that encourage or reinforce playtime:

In Now What Can I Do? by Margaret Park Bridges, a clever momma raccoon encourages her child to use his imagination to make his bed a boat and turn other routine chores into adventures.  She helps him turn work into playful fun.  Questions for discussion:

1. What do you think would have been the most fun activity that little raccoon did?
2. How might we make some of our daily routines more fun?

Join In and Play by Cheri J. Meiners (from the Learning to Get Along series) helps children learn the skills necessary to play with others.  Sometimes a child finds it difficult to be included when others are playing.  Discussing some of the situations in this book might help them overcome their anxiety.  Be sure to check out the suggestions at the back of the book, including some role play and “What would you do?” situations.

1. Did you ever have a time when you were not included during play time?  How did that make you feel? What did you do next?
2. How can you be a friend to others when they feel left out?

By throwing a pillow on the floor and setting the scene for play, Balancing on a Rock by Diane Youngblood Donlon takes your child on an adventure in a “creepy, slimy, scary swamp”.  The iParenting Media Award winner uses the imagination of children to create quite an enjoyable opportunity for play.  Laundry baskets become crocodile cages and shoes and socks are stepping stones.  Encourage your child to add to the story line.  There is even a CD with music to accompany this story.

1. What things in this room could you use to add to this adventure or to create an adventure of your own?
2. If you were creating a story, what might you make the pillow be? 

When you use your imagination to play, what is your favorite adventure?

• Are You Ready to Play Outside?  by Mo Willems
• Balancing on a Rock by Diane Youngblood Donlon
• Doctor Ted by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
• How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends by Jane Yolen
• Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty
• Join In and Play by Cheri J. Meiners
• Just How Long Can a Long String Be?! by Keith Baker
• Mighty Max by Harriet Zieffert
• My Day, Your Day by Robin Ballard
• Not a Box by Antoinette Portis
• Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis
• Now What Can I Do? by Margaret Park Bridges

Unplugged Play—No Batteries, No Plugs, Pure Fun by Conner

• A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play by Vivian Gussin Paley

Children's Play: The Roots of Reading by Edward Zigler

• Developmentally Appropriate Play: Guiding Young Children to a Higher Level by Gaye Gronlund

Play = Learning: How Play Motivates and Enhances Children's Cognitive and Social-Emotional Growth by Dorothy Singer

Play at the Center of the Curriculum by Judith Van Hoorn

Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by Stuart Brown

• The Girl with the Brown Crayon by Vivian Gussin Paley
• The Power of Play: Learning What Comes Naturally by David Elkind
• You Can't Say You Can't Play by Vivian Gussin Paley

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