Why should my child "play" all day?

Play: to engage in an activity for enjoyment or recreation rather than for a serious or practical purpose (Webster Dictionary) 

"What did you do at school today?"

"I played..."

In early childhood settings, why do we allow our children to "play" all day?  What are our children really learning?  Let's see what all this "play" is doing for our children and how will it help them in the long run.

During learning centers, she is learning emergent reading and writing skills through her choice of going to to the literacy and writing center.

The boys are learning letters recognition while putting the train tracks together in the correct order of the alphabet, and engineering skills while building an apple orchard.

While in dramatic play these students are learning number recognition and social skills, that will be important for their future school success.

In our sensory center, the children learn hand eye coordination and fine motor development that is needed for writing. Children are using cutting utensils that are an early form of using technology applications.

It is important to allow children to play because they learn through their observation and thought processing skills. based on their own experiences, cause and effect and their own discovery, children will learn that "just playing" is their form of work. So the next time you want to see them doing structured work, just let them keep "playing."

Gen Medrano

Assistant Dolphin Teacher