Children Learn Through Play

We don't need to push children or cram information into their heads. We just need to ensure they have the opportunities to explore knowledge for themselves. We can expose them to a rich environment and then allow them to explore it freely. By playing, a child can take in what she is ready for. She will be less likely to resist learning and will find the excitement of discovering her own place in the world.

This article will help clarify both how children learn as they play and how we as parents and as teachers can facilitate our children's learning without discouraging them or putting obstacles in their way.

Let the play begin!

Have you ever watched a baby in a highchair drop a toy and watch it fall to the floor?

Probably the first time she dropped it was an accident, but she will repeat the experience. After you retrieve the dropped toy she will quickly throw it down again, cry for you to get it and then throw it down again. The game will go on for as long as you have patience for it, but baby won't soon give up. She is fascinated! Gravity exists!

As she grows, her curiosity will move on to other things, but the basic pattern will continue. Your growing child needs to experience things for herself in order for her to truly understand them. She does this by playing.

It turns out that our brains can process information better when we learn with fun and positive emotions. Good teachers have known this all along because they see the results when their students get excited about a new idea and have fun with it. Teachers see the opposite as well when a class of bored students experience more frustration than success. This isn't to say that all learning comes without some effort and even struggle, but we are most motivated and can learn concepts most quickly and make them our own when we learn them in a positive playful manner.

If this is true for adults, it is even more true for children.

Imaginative play gives a child the opportunity to problem solve and to figure out what his place is in the world. In this type of play, a child tries out what it would feel like to be a Dad, or a firefighter, or a super hero. He is developing his ability to understand another person's viewpoint. He is learning to face what he is afraid of as well as explore what he is interested in. Playing doctor allows a child to work out fears of visiting a doctor in real life. It also allows him to imitate things he has seen another do.

When children get the opportunity to play in water and sand, they have an easier time understanding the concepts of volume and fractions when they are introduced to them in elementary school. They can draw on years of experience of filling buckets and dumping them out. If they have had measuring cups and spoons to play with, they will know from experience that two half cups will fit into one whole cup. Formal math makes so much more sense when a child has spent years organizing and rearranging things in her world!

Playing with play dough is another way to learn spatial concepts. You and your child can form shapes with the dough. You can roll snakes and form them into numbers and letters. The tactile feel of it gives you another sense with which to process information. Play dough is also a way to release tension.

Board games and puzzles help a child with problem solving and turn taking. As they progress around a board, children develop one-to-one correspondence and perfect their counting skills.

Do you remember playing as a child? What was your favourite game or activity?

When we allow children to learn in a playful and joy-filled way, we set them up to continue their life long journey with learning long after they leave school. Our school days, after all, are only the beginning of our education. If we are open to it, we can continue learning our whole life long.

Parents and educators can help a child begin on this journey by designing an environment in which a child can encounter ideas and concepts in a positive and connected way.

I hope you've found encouragement in this hub for your own journey with your child.

Do you have a story about learning and play? Maybe your child did something really cute while playing a game that showed some new learning, or maybe you remember your own experience when you were a little child. Maybe your child said something funny while playing that showed just the opposite -- that he really didn't understand something at all! Make us laugh!