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Kids Learn at Recess!
How Children Learn Through Play
By Mark Stackpole
Ask any kid what his favorite school subject is, and the answer you will often get is "Recess." You remember those days – getting to go out and play with your friends rather than sit at a desk and learn stuff. The dirty secret that kids don't know, and parents don't tell them, is that they are actually learning a lot from running around with their friends and playing those games.
Throwing a baseball is a lesson in physics. Joining a soccer team teaches all about teamwork and cooperation. Holding a tea party is like reading Ms. Manners, only with your teddy bears and imaginary friends. It's all learning – and playing!
"Natural, everyday elements can be springboards to wonderful play and learning experiences for children," says Barbara Polland, a professor of Child and Adolescent Development at the California State University, Northridge, and the author of No Directions on the Package: Questions and Answers for Parents with Children from Birth to Age 12 (Celestial Arts, 2000). "The elements – mud, sand, water – are generally available to parents at little cost. It is way too easy to let children become addicted to the frenetic pace of television and computer games. How sad is that and how dangerous to brain development and the process of creativity through hands-on experience?"
Polland recalls such a learning opportunity inspired by the presence of a spider in a play yard. After seeing a spider web, the children were prompted to read a little bit about spiders and webs. "The children were fascinated by the idea of trapping things in the web," she says. "We measured out yarn to make a huge web and then made up dances for moving through it and eventually getting trapped." The children drew pictures of things to get trapped in the giant yarn web and then taped them to it. One activity led to others as the children came up with new ideas.
