Early Learning

Let the children play!

Historically, play has been viewed as a frivolous break from important endeavours like working and learning when, in fact, a child’s ability to fully and freely engage in play is essential to their overall development. People often think of play in terms of specific ‘play activities’ such as chasey, dress ups, or playing in the sandpit. In contrast, they think of work in terms of activities like raking leaves, cooking, cleaning, or doing homework. It is the belief of early childhood teachers that any activity, as long as it is done with a playful approach, is play. In other words, it’s not about what you do, it’s about how you do it.

Children from every society on earth spend time playing. From an infant’s first smile to a pre-schooler’s careful construction of a tower, children use play to engage with and learn about their world. For a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things they do ‘just for fun’ and things that are ‘educational’. The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play.

All children need the opportunity to play in an unrestricted manner, to ponder, to shape and re-shape their worlds. Young children are the best audience: they are curious, enthusiastic, impulsive, generous, and pleased by simple joys. They are hopeful, open-minded, and open-hearted with a voracious hunger to understand the world in which they live. They are continuously

acting and reacting, thinking and responding, anticipating and reflecting. The sandpit, the home corner, the block area, the nature garden, all become vehicles for learning about life, and help children develop their curiosity, concentration and persistence.

When adults restrict play opportunities they reduce the powerful natural capabilities that children bring to the learning experience and, as a consequence, they take the love out of learning.

Childhood is a time of celebration, a time to question, probe and investigate. At the ELC,

teachers try to create an environment for the children that treasures childhood. They are given time – time to explore, time to discover, time to interact with their peers, time to play and time to ‘just be children’.

ELC teachers always endeavour to nurture the unique thoughts and skills of each child so that the natural freshness of the child’s mind never disappears, but stays with them always. Childhood should last a lifetime.

Deborah Hendren Head of Early Learning Centre