I went to a seminar by Eric Hoffman, author, professor and former teacher who spoke about the importance of play. It was so inspiring and brought so much to light about Children! Here are the notes...
Young children use pay to explore important questions about themselves and the world around them. It is their way of "thinking out loud." At first, these questions are basic: Who will take care of me? How does my body work? How can i learn about the people and things around me? As their brains develop and they gain more knowledge and control, their questions become increasingly complex. Observing play can help us understand what questions a child is asking and guide us to curriculum that provides positive answers.
CHILDREN TRY TO UNDERSTAND THEIR WORLD BY:
-observing adults, peers, and media characters
-imitating what they observe
-testing the limits of themselves, their environment, and important adults (children test our language to see if we are going to do what we say).
-asking questions
-creating ever-changing theories about how things work (they come up with grand ideas to understand things. If you give them info. it will change their idea. They are figuring out how the world works. Their ideas are not logical).
-expressing ideas through language, art, music and motion
-and most importantly---through PLAY! (through play they invest in the world. Play is fun for adults, NOT always for children. They make their ideas real in the world and that can be scary. If they are afraid of something they tend to turn it into something... for example: if they are afraid of a person place of thing they will call it a monster. They can can imagine future and past. Children will take bits of information and play it out, for example, draw or build. They are trying to figure out how the world works and how people work.)
PRESCHOOLERS PLAY SO THEY CAN:
-explore emotions by:
-learning to identify feelings
-developing new ways to express feelings
-explore social relationships by:
-forging new connections with adults
-investigating friendships with peers
-studying power, control and autonomy, and learning how to balance the desire for power with the need for relationship
-explore their intellectual abilities by:
-expanding knowledge of the world outside the family
-developing a self identity
-looking for predictable patterns
-trying out "big ideas"
-asking "big questions" such as:
what is right and what is wrong? what is good and what is bad?
what is fair and what is unfair?
what is life and what is death?
what is a boy and what is a girl?
what is real and what is fantasy?
what does it mean to be a grownup?
(they are trying to figure out who's in charge, and who is a friend. 5-6 year olds can have more than 1 friend, you can play with so in so and still be my friend but if they are younger, they can only understand what it means to have one friend, they think if they have one friend they can't have another and if someone else trys to be friends with their friend it means they don't have that friend anymore. Giving them examples such as "I am friends with Jack, Sally and Amy but sometimes I only play with Amy and Jack and sometimes Sally just plays with Amy.)
-Children will hit another child because they have a toy they want and if it worked and they got the toy, they will do it again because it worked for them. Children aren't good at having different categories in their life.
-Children think if they use their imaginations to say what this is it will really hurt their feelings.
-It's hard for them explore ideas they have with out being about to play it out with other children.
-Children don't speak their ideas (such as things about death, good and bad)
-Separating their actions from who they are doesn't make sense to them (you can narrate for them by saying "it looks like you really want to play with ___." when they express actions that look like they want to play with another child but may be harmful.) They explore their feelings by doing things, for example, if one child, lets call him Kyle is building blocks, and another child named John is watching and thinking of how he really wants to play with Kyle, but instead of saying I want to play with you he runs over and knocks Kyle's blocks over because he has already in his mind imagined him asking Kyle if he could play and Kyle rejected him and said no.
-Sometimes they are fighting over a truck when they are really fighting with each other, they just can't express it in words. That's why we must facilitate and narrate for them what their feelings are.
-We have to narrate, speak and defend for them. With out adults calling out their threats (i'm not going to let you threaten her to be the "baby", find something both children agree on and then they can play that. If the child that is being called the baby is ok being called a kitty and the other child calling her the baby is ok calling her the kitty, then they have resolved it and can play in peace.) If it is an older child calling a younger child the baby you can tell the older child "this person needs my help right now, you don't need my help right now."
-give children real examples to narrate their play, actions and feelings.
-books with real people and genders playing different roles (like a woman being a firefighter) can help them figure out their world and feelings.
-Children will give up their ideas to be accepted by their peer groups.
-If you make your child fearful (not letting them do things that may have some danger in it) they will never build the skills in that area.
-explore their physical abilities to
-test physical limits
-practicing new physical skills
