While studying to become a certified child care provider, I realized the importance and impact that play has on the development of young children.

“The brain is the part of the body that allows us to feel joy or despair, to respond to others in a loving or angry way, to use reason or simply to react. These capacities don’t just magically appear - they result from the interplay between a child’s heredity and the experiences he or she has during childhood. The fact that the brain matures in the world, rather than the womb, means that young children are deeply affected by their early experiences. These help to determine brain structure, thus shaping the way people learn, think and behave for the rest of their lives.”
(From: The First Years Last Forever: The New Brain Research and Your Child’s Healthy Development. The Canadian Institute of Child Health, Ottawa, ON)

Children make sense of the world through play as it builds a picture of their world and prepares them for everyday living experiences. Play is nature’s way of preparing our children for situations we cannot predict.

Play is:

• children’s research
• the child’s way of learning
• nature’s way of training for life
• the creative energy that is essential for human survival

Play is also:

• adventure
• freedom
• fantasy/imagination
• challenging
• discovery
• enjoyment
• companionship/interacting
• fun!!

Learning your ABC’s, 123’s, provinces & times tables are definitely important but there will be time for that. There is only so much time for ‘play’ and what it can teach children. Through role play children understand what you do when you go to a post office and how you shop at a store for groceries. During story time they learn where eggs come from and what language other children speak in other countries around the world. During art children learn what shaving cream feels like and how it moves as well as what colours express how they feel.

“You don’t stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing”
- George Bernard Shaw