When Play is Work: Yes, “play” is good for young . . . and old

Whether you are a child or an adult, a balanced life should include work, sleep, and play. For adults, an old song goes, “Lucky, lucky, lucky me, I’m a lucky son of a gun. I work eight hours, I sleep eight hours, that leaves eight hours for fun.” The English lyrics were adapted from an Italian folksong by Milton Berle and Eddy Arnold in 1950. If the song were rewritten for children, though, the numbers would probably change to something like “I sleep twelve hours and play twelve hours for fun.”


As explained in a previous MOTAL article, How Preschools Make the Grade, the work of young children is play. The ideas below may help clarify how that can be. Also, just to send an up-front warning: creating an environment for children to engage in authentic play is WORK for adults. Tasks can be shared with children, but effort is definitely involved.


Experiential play, and the materials that go with it, require attention, interaction, know-how, space in which to spread out, and organization to clean up and store the materials. So expect more work in order to play. The good news is that children—and their adults—can end up having a great time and enhance their relationships through conversations and shared experiences.


Hands-on activities can put the child in the driver’s seat, allowing for decision making and multisensory benefits. Consider the benefits of the following:
 
Playing with clay and playdough - the pliability and malleability of these materials allow children to work with shapes and discover how three-dimensional figures can be created. Learning how to roll “snakes,” make cut-outs, press pancakes, or form bowls, can all develop eye-hand coordination and awareness of shapes. The feel of the clay and/or dough becomes part of tactile memory. Children who work with bread or pie dough have similar delights. After forming shapes, baking the objects in a kiln or oven can provide additional insights into physical properties. Final outcomes provide delight—works of art, edible treats!
Coloring - Coloring in the spaces on pre-printed pictures and designs is 1) relaxing, 2) informative as to how certain art supplies (crayons, markers, paints, colored pencils) behave and look on paper, 3) allows individuals to choose colors that seem appropriate, and 4) permits a sense of satisfaction upon completion of an entire picture. But it’s true that children and adults develop their own artistic abilities when they use materials to create original shapes and patterns, so having plain-paper activities is wise.

Solving jigsaw puzzles - Working with jigsaw puzzles of varying levels of difficulty can develop familiarity with the ways two-dimensional shapes fit together. The use of color and design clues can lead to later abilities in reasoning, eye-hand coordination, problem-solving, short-term memory, and . . .perseverance. More than one person can work on a puzzle and engage in conversation to share strategies, comments on the picture, and congratulations when pieces fit.


Cutting - Knowing how to handle a pair of scissors helps with eye-hand coordination and following a straight line is useful for projects at home and school throughout life. Using different types of scissors is intriguing, and when carefully supervised, young children can use instruments beyond their blunt-tip primary scissors. Cutting with the tips and various parts of the blades with several types of paper (tissue, wrapping, copy, newsprint) and cardboard (packing box, toilet tissue roll, shoebox) can provide different results. Add paste or glue and artistic collages or characters can emerge. Children can gain intuitive knowledge of how the fulcrum of a pair of scissors works and adds to cutting power of fingers and hands. Experiments in cutting paper folded in half, quarters, or more various can be great fun as well as develop mathematical understandings related to symmetry, shapes, and fractions.

Playing dress-up – Old clothes, pieces of fabric, store-bought costumes, sheets of newspaper—all can be fashioned into hats, capes, dresses, shirts, to produce an outfit and create a character. Young children putting on Mom’s or Dad’s shoes can become their parents and talk in ways that sound very grown up. Dressing up helps develop a sense of detail through the choosing and creating the types of attire, the sorts of voices, and the words uttered by the imaginary characters. The activity promotes problem-solving and encourages communication. Data reveals that, in the US, Halloween is now one of the top holidays. People of all ages like to dress up!


Below are a few more play opportunities to contemplate. Readers may have other examples to add to the list.

• Playing outside in a yard or park
• Digging in the dirt
• Stringing beads
• Handling and reading books
• Listening and moving to music
• Using paste and glue
• Playing on playground equipment
• Visiting the beach
• Playing in the tub or pool
• Cook with kitchen tools
• Use small tools to hammer, drill wood

Are these activities fun? (Absolutely!) Do they help develop skills for the future? (Certainly!) Do they develop paying attention? (Yes!) Do they require “work” to prepare? (For sure!)


Before signing off, this writer has a few additional comments. Children need play to become good readers. Reading is not just about letters and sounds and making words. Life experiences with environments and materials can provide deep understandings of concepts. Conversations about those activities provide key vocabulary that support those memories and build reading comprehension. Children who read a story about kids at the beach, and have also visited a beach themselves, can be fully immersed and able to remember . . . and relate.

Setting up opportunities for play can involve a lot of preparation and follow-up. It is often slow— more time-consuming—but that can be said about other enriching aspects of modern life. Fast food tends to be too caloric, salty, and/or sugary and prepared foods that get popped in the microwave are often filled with additives that don’t taint home-cooked meals made “from scratch.” Too, individuals who bolt down their dinners can end up with stomach upsets and overeating. In contrast, health advisors caution to chew slowly and savor each bite. It follows, then, that authentic play times could be said to be more “nutritious” than many of the bright, loud, fast-moving games that often populate electronic devices.


As parents, teachers, and caregivers know, the electronic games that children play are astounding and great fun, and can develop facility with technology in a world where becoming tech-savvy is important for future education and work. Grownups also find it convenient to have children sit with a small device while the adults attend to their own phone, computer, or chores. However, a game on a machine was created by other people who earn money to think it up and make it work. Digital pastimes can consume too many hours for people, young and old. Concerns about too much screen time are valid.
 
In the end, give thought to the value of hands-on experiences. No children in your life right now? Enjoy the same activities on your own, recalling “work eight hours, sleep eight hours, that leaves eight hours for fun.


Submitted by Greta Nagel
MOTAL President and CEO


References:
Huff Post article - 8 Reasons Playing Is Great For Adults And Kids by Amy Packham
Top photo credit - Cecilie_Arcurs via Getty Images
Playdough Power | NAEYC
How Puzzles Help Your Child’s Development - Penfield Building Blocks