Learning through Play

The overall concept communicated through this blog is the idea of learning through Play. The previous posts all link up with this notion.

Learning through play does not necessarily mean playing games, drawing and painting most of the time with a small bit of academia thrown in, in the form of literacy and numeracy. It involves including all subjects of the National Curriculum and cleverly structuring them in such a manner that a child has fun whilst learning, perhaps not even noticing that they are learning mathematical skills or even how to read.

The aim of learning through play is to develop a child’s skills and build on existing knowledge, as well as teaching them new subject matter. Also, it is not only academic knowledge that is developed. A child’s mental state can also be developed through play. Aspects such as social, emotional and cultural knowledge are built upon and prepare children for later life.

I have experienced this for myself. Even though when I was a child there was no Foundation Phase, it was at home where I feel I learnt the most. The main thing I remember was Den building. My father made myself and my sisters a little toolbox and would put a few nails and small tools in it and off we’d go to find a suitable, hidden place to build our den, away from the children in the next street, who, for some reason, we tended to have battles with.

Looking back, I now see that Den building developed a multitude of different skills. We worked together, we took each other ideas into consideration, the obvious physical skills it took to carry the wood, the tools and to hammer and bang until the Den was stable enough for us to go inside. It was child-initiated play, no one instructed us to do it and no one guided us through each task. We created it all ourselves and once we were done we would play games in it such as ‘house’ or ‘shop’.

Incorporating play into day-to-day schooling is a must. It develops much more than basic math’s and literacy skills. It develops skills for life. Having an active childhood is a blessing for any child, examples of this are in the following posts below.

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