Learn how to play?

Friends, sports, music lessons, homework - the list goes on and on. Children today have quite a full schedule.

Every single activity is important – but when do children have an opportunity to really play? When can they let their imagination run wild? When do they delve into their own play world?

Playing, though sometimes overlooked, is especially important in a child’s development. What is often dismissed by parents as daydreaming or playing around is really a child learning. Children develop social skills by playing – skills they use their entire life. Whether it is in kindergarten, preschool or later in life – appropriate social conduct is a general requirement. At the same time, by playing they learn to understand the situations that they are confronted with.

The next step forward from basic playing is role playing which enables children to learn to communicate, to put themselves in other people’s positions and to take responsibility.

Teaching and learning are not mysteries that can only happen in school. They also happen when parents and children do simple things together. All children have two wonderful resources for learning - imagination and curiosity. As a parent, you can awaken your children to the joy of learning by encouraging their imagination and curiosity.

This simple "playing around" supplies an ongoing stimulus to the healthy development of the child’s imagination and creativity on the path to adulthood.