Dear Parents and Carers,
Summer Play
The summer holidays are a wonderful time for children to play. Any activity can be play. The secret sauce is playfulness - the ability to see a situation and be curious about it, realise it can be enjoyable, and get involved.
BENEFITS OF PLAY
Intellectual development: Play builds executive function skills, content knowledge, and creative thinking. When children build with blocks or draw, they are counting, classifying, and creating and examining patterns.
Social development: Playing with others means listening, and taking person's perspective. Social play also requires children to share ideas and express feelings while negotiating compromises.
Emotional development: Children learn self-regulation as they follow norms and pay attention while experiencing feelings such as anticipation or frustration. Play teaches children how to set and change rules, and how to decide when to lead and when to follow.
Physical development: In sports, outdoor games, and dance, children develop strength, muscle control, coordination and reflexes. They push limits and try new things - racing down a hill, swimming underwater - that can motivate them to take risks in other circumstances.
The three indicators of playful learning: choice, wonder and delight.
Choice looks like children setting goals, developing and sharing ideas, making rules, negotiating challenges, and choosing how long to play.
Wonder looks like children exploring, creating, pretending, imagining, and learning from trial and error.
Delight looks like happiness: children smiling, laughing, being silly, or generally feeling cosy and at ease.
HOW TO ENCOURAGE PLAY
Plan for play, and create the space for it.
If children have been spending too much time in front of screens, say to them, "Tomorrow, let's have some of your friends over here to play," or "Let's walk over to the playground".
Find fun in the materials you have. Rather than always buying new toys, encourage children to find their own materials.
Be open to risk. If you let children know that you trust them to take small risks, they'll enjoy creating and exploring and won't mind a few bumps and bruises.
Model play. If children watch their parents or grandparents having hobbies, enjoying sports, being creative, being outside, then it's more likely they will find interesting things to do with their time.
Play together. Your children actually do want to play with you. Build sandcastles together, dress up together, or tell stories together. Really get into the spirit of play and doing it together. That's the beauty pf summertime.
Wait out the cries of "I'm bored". Children often have to pass through that initial discomfort and recover the space and presence to be self-directed and curious.
Acknowledgement: Leah Shafer
