The Play Belongs To The Child

Real play opens the doors to the kind of learning the sticks. The learning that is so deeply embedded in a person that it becomes who they are.

Real play is guided by a force from within each child. I liken me setting that up for them as another way we adults see ourselves as superior, we think that we know, more than the child what their own interests and needs are.

I came to the realization that they do a much better job at that than I do. If I see a child showing they need to run, jump, break things, be alone, color big, lift something heavy, work quietly, get up high, be sad, have a hug... I alter the environment so that they can seek and find what it is they need.

If they are interested in pets or zoos or doctors, I trust that they will use the wonderful loose parts to explore that topic through play. I will not set up that play for them eliminating their need to create what they see in their imagination, eliminating their need to construct their own play.

Play they construct has a realness to it, I see something come alive in their eyes when they own their own play.

It ebbs and flows and grows as time passes, the children navigate it, I hold no ownership of it, I seek to teach nothing, I instead allow the seeking to come from the hearts and minds of the children and the teaching to come from the play.