03/07/2008
Why Play is Important
Where there is no vision, there is no hope.
George Washington Carver
Elizabeth Jones, early childhood expert from Pacific Oaks and long-time Exchange writer, presented ideas on the value of play in Work and Family Life (February 2008; www.workandfamilylife.com). According to Jones, play teaches kids to...
- Use their imagination, improvise, think flexibly, and explore new options.
- Make appropriate choices from among many possibilities.
- Solve problems, both with materials with people.
- Cooperate with other children in the creation of mutually satisfying projects.
- Work through their feelings in creative, non-destructive ways.
- Become more aware of their own real interests, without being distracted with other possibilities — to say "yes" and to say "no."
- Use something, such as a dramatic action, a word, a toy, a set of blocks, or a collection of marks on paper, to represent something else — this sort of representation being essential to the process of learning to read.
- See themselves as competent and interesting people, with useful skills and good ideas.
Exchange has collected its many resources on play into a
Play Tool Kit and is offering the entire set at a 33% discount. Resources in the kit include…
