Why Play-Based Learning Is The Undercover To Playtime Amongst Your Kids {It's Easier Than Y'all Think}

{How you lot tin piece of employment play-based learning to maximize didactics in addition to fun for you lot in addition to your child}


"Mom, I wish a combine to play alongside similar the i inwards the farm book" said my boy (age 2.5) at the time.

"Well, nosotros don't accept a toy combine" I said inwards passing. 

He looked distressing in addition to at a loss equally to what to play with. "Wait," I said, "we tin brand i out of Duplos." 

"Really?" he asked, non thence certain equally to what I was talking about. 

"Sure, let's run across what I tin assist you lot figure out" I said in addition to speedily grabbed upward some Duplo blocks in addition to started piecing them together. 

Before long nosotros had a "combine" made out of all of four Duplo blocks. I made a "vroom" audio equally I ran it over a champaign of toy corn nosotros already had. He loved it. You could straight off run across the gears inwards his caput turning equally he decided how he could play alongside it. He carried it around all day, fifty-fifty inwards the car. 

As a parent, you lot may wonder if all that fourth dimension you lot pass alongside your kid playing alongside blocks in addition to puzzles actually helps them larn anything. In an historic menses inwards which new, high-tech toys are showing upward on shelves everyday, it is tempting to remember that "old fashioned" toys similar blocks in addition to puzzles are boring.

In an historic menses where "everyone" is sending their children to academic preschools to larn phonics in addition to addition, you lot may wonder if this seemingly unproblematic play alongside blocks actually helps them at all.

However, enquiry is showing us that this is far from the truth. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 recent play-based learning fits improve alongside immature children's developmental capabilities than rote learning.

Play-based learning, however, doesn't necessarily hateful that kids should live on left to their ain devices all the time; some adult guidance is useful inwards helping kids construction their play in addition to larn novel concepts. This doesn't hateful you lot accept to instruct your kid how to play, but offering some ideas or a starting indicate is frequently helpful. 

I accept flora inwards playing alongside my sons that they volition frequently come upward up alongside an thought of something they wish to exercise or simulate based on something they saw inwards a mass or video, but they may non quite know how to implement it. Once they cite an idea, I volition assist them come upward up alongside the tools (usually whatever toys are lying around) to exercise the vision.

Luckily, kids accept cracking imaginations in addition to almost whatsoever combination of Legos tin plough into the desired object. Once they accept their creations inwards hand, they normally are off in addition to playing alongside really trivial intervention from me.

Related post: A Day inwards the Life of a Child Under 4: New Guidelines for Sleep, Movement in addition to Screen Time

This is actually the key--they are actually engaged inwards the play because it is based on their interests. It's non some contrived fine art projection that I remember looks cute, but they accept no involvement in. In my experience, the best play-based learning is actually only taking their interests in addition to running alongside it. 

Related reading: What is Guided Play in addition to Why is it Important

Bringing Back the Joy of Playtime

When I run across their trivial brains figuring out how to build something new, this is what brings the joy dorsum into playtime for me. The best times rate when I'm non saying, "go play alongside your toys" or "turn off the TV in addition to become play outside" (although I accept been known to tell that). The existent magic happens when I'm only offering a trivial spark of an thought in addition to they brand their ain invention of how to play.

Of course, it tin live on a chip tricky at times to discovery their interests, but alongside a trivial questioning you lot tin normally figure it out:

• Does your kid accept a favorite book?
• Does your kid accept a favorite TV show?
• Is he or she actually into a detail toy or topics correct at nowadays (e.g., trains, dinosaurs, worms, etc)?

Take this interest, in addition to thence discovery a agency to assist them exercise it, piece of employment it, or sense it inwards their ain world.

I remember i of the principal messages of the Temple report is the importance of guided play. Playing alongside blocks inwards itself is non magical, it's the guidance in addition to vocabulary offered past times adults that actually seems to brand the departure inwards children's learning. 

"Guided play" may audio similar a daunting task, but it's actually only a furnish to your childhood in addition to inwards the procedure helping your kid discovery his or her world.

Related Resources:

Learning without Worksheets Challenge--learning activities for parents in addition to kids (ages 3-5 years)

Toy Library--clear the clutter past times renting instead of buying toys (including Legos!)

Perfect for Pinning:

Ferrara, K., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Newcombe, N., Golinkoff, R., & Lam, W. (2011). Block Talk: Spatial Language During Block Play Mind, Brain, in addition to Education, 5 (3), 143-151 DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-228X.2011.01122.x