I Started At Boston Children Museum On Friday

As an early years practitioner you will recognise that children’s play is closely linked to their learning and development. Children learn in so many different ways but you will notice that they learn mainly through play. When children are able to do many different activity’s that allows them to lean but have fun at the same time thy will find what they are doing fun and will engage the children. It is important that when in you your setting you set up a variety of educational activity’s this way the children will be able to choose freely what they want to do.

The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people

When learning becomes fun the teachers find it less challenging for trying to keep the child engaged in the activity at hand. The job of the educator working with a play-based curriculum is to facilitate play, to draw out and extend what children learn through play (Play Based Programmes, 2015). Children have a variety of play spaces available that mimic their regular world around them, each space can be intertwined with another centre such as combining the truck centre with the block centre, or adding in some zoo animals to the area. The play based approach can be used by children of all abilities, it allows children to play independently or as a small group, and allows the children the opportunity to bring their home life into their play.

Play can offer children to learn concepts of science such as the structure of matter, know between force and motion, and diversity. P1

Play is inevitable when it comes to children. Given the right environment and objects (of any sort), children will find a way to play. Jarvis, et al state that educators must offer inspiring, playful environments which include hands-on activities and interesting resources. This will empower children to educate themselves (2009). Along the same line, Wood and Attfield consider that an environment inclusive of varied resources will provide room for growth in their learning and will support the child’s “creativity, inventiveness and originally” (2005, p.231).

In addition to play promoting pleasure as well as physical activity, play forms the holistic growth in children’s development, or to put it in another way using Brown (2003) acronym, acknowledged as ‘SPICE’; play represents the ‘social interaction’; ‘physical activity’; ‘intellectual stimulation’; creative achievement and emotional stability, (with the addition of “compound flexibility”) in a child’s development. Compound flexibility is the idea that a child’s psychological development occurs using the relationship between his/her environment with the adaptability of the child himself. Thus the flexibility of surroundings and his/her adaptableness can provide children the means to explore; experiment and investigate (Brown, 2003, pp. 53-4). On the contrary, the absence of social interaction and physical activity through the means of play can inhibit children’s overall development and without the consistency of play children suffer a “chronic lack of sensory interaction with the world, [which leads to] a form of sensory deprivation” (Hughes, 2001, p.217 in Lester and Maudsley 2006).

Every child is unique in their own way and I strongly believe that the environment plays a big role in raising the child. Studies show that PLAY plays the important role in children’s learning and development. Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) believed that play was a highly significant activity and initiated an approach to learning in early childhood that offers children a wide range of experiences so that they could develop an understanding of their world and themselves. He also mentioned that will encourage children to discover things through the interaction with their environment.

Understanding theories in supporting children’s play and development are able to provide children with effective methods of developing life skills. There are various theories that teach us how children can benefit from play.

Outdoor play is a mandatory continuous provision within the setting which children explore their knowledge through play outside the classroom, focusing on the prime and specific areas of the EYFS. Outdoor play describes how some children learn or assimilate through play, how they learn, what they learn and the impact on their development. The importance of outdoor play helped to increase the levels of physical activity along many positive influences on a child’s well- being, such as opportunities to understand and respect the natural world.

Play in the sense of emotional maturity, it teaches the child how to build relationships through self confidence and self esteem. When a child occupy themselves in physical play this helps the child with with their physical coordination. A child’s cognitive development through play helps a child express their feelings and thoughts along with cultural and social understandings. Practice alphabets, numbers, colors, and shapes.

While we all can agree that mathematic is crucial and a structured classroom curriculum to meet the demands of a global society are important, other life skills, which are also important, are provided in an environment where the child is free to direct his/her learning, which often relies heavily on play. In her book Theories of Childhood, Mooney (2013) wrote that Erik Erikson believed “if we encourage preschool children to use their energy in an active and involved way, their confidence will grow. Their competence will increase.” This means that recess and play time are critical to development.

Solving problems and participating in make-believe comes with exploring the world through play. These activities express creativity and build confidence. Furthermore, sensory play develops and refines the senses. This valuable childhood activity proves therapeutic, improves motor skills, increases awareness of the world and promotes language acquisition.

As a child, my schoolteacher mother filled my summers with the cultural institutions of Fair Park and the Dallas Arts District. Whether day-tripping to the Women’s Museum or the Nasher Sculpture Center, these Dallas institutions first exposed me to a career in the museum world. My first year at Southern Methodist University, I sought further exposure to this world, and completed an internship at the Crow Collection of Asian Art in the heart of the Arts District. There I served as the Education and Events Intern, working with gallery educators, event planners, and the marketing team to brainstorm, build curriculum for, organize, host, and publicize interactive programming for families, all the while incorporating the themes and

According to chapter 12 of the book, Play at the Center of the Curriculum (5th Edition) written by Judith Van Hoorn, Patricia Monighan Nourot, Barbara Scales, Keith Rodriguez Alward, I have learned play can foster children to develop many skills such as physical, cognitive concepts language, social and emotional. In this chapter, these authors discussed the importance of different types of outdoor play such as physically active outdoor play, outdoor nature play, and child-initiated outdoor play. Physically active outdoor play contributes to children’s healthy development because it fosters children physical development, including a child’s whole body in practice and skill development. For example, children will run, balance, jump, hop, skip, gallop, walk, climb, swing, skip, throw, catch, grasp, crawl, push, and pull heavy play props. While playing outside, children will learn best when their whole body is engaged in active physical play. In addition, children at play area making sense of the world, and through play children will have the enjoyment, self-expression, and social interaction. In this chapter, the authors (2010) also mention that as children play outside, they will have an active physical exercise in spontaneous play, they also will experience the cognitive and social demands because the physically active play will stimulate children to think, speak, and negotiate with their playmates as well as their teachers. Moreover, the physically active

Children love to play, but it is not all fun and games! Children play for fun and enjoyment, but while they play they are also exploring and learning new things. Children can practice a skill, build or strengthen a relationship, and check out new things (Pruett). Play is often described as an activity that one does for their own entertainment and sake. It is defined by being internally motivated, controlled, and valued, whereas work is defined as externally motivated, controlled and valued (Carlisle). In our complex world today playtime can seem to be a waste of time to many parents and educators. But playtime can be one of the best investments parents can make in their child’s education. Playtime is necessary for healthy child development, and can also be an important factor in how well a child does in his future education (Pruett). Parents can easily help their children develop socially and emotionally by simply playing with them. In fact, David Elkind, author of Power of Play said, “When parents take the time and make the effort to play games with their children, it gives children a sense that they are important in their parents’ lives. All this game playing and social learning makes it easier for children to learn in a school setting where they are interacting with adults and have the basic social skills that are the basis for formal learning (Peters).” Play continues to be beneficial throughout childhood, even when the child reaches school. Play is more than just