Swati was a parent and a kindergarten teacher. Through her years of teaching kids, she knew that play-based learning is essential for young children no matter how challenging. However, this insight did not come overnight. Earlier in her career, she used a didactic approach full of worksheets and drills because it was “expected” or “easy” but then she realized that such conventional approaches indeed took less of her time but gave poor dividends. Children either forgot the concepts or remained lazy or turned mechanical.
She decided on shifting her approach and strived to provide an engaging environment where play became the prominent support for kids and means of learning no matter how challenging it was for her to be innovative each time. She practiced the same with her 4 year old at home.
So her home turned into more of a “feel and do it yourself” ground of teaching.
In her classroom, for a session of understanding different tastes of food, she would distribute a variety of foods amongst kids and then ask each of them to describe it. Someday it was a ‘peanut butter candy’, the other day it would be salty potato. For a session on animal identification and cognition, she would bring colorful encyclopedias to the class and hand them over to the kids. This was followed by audio based sound sessions and enacting of a zoo scene with kids playing lead roles in fancy costumes.
Her classroom and home were not only about child-directed playful learning. It consisted of a healthy mix of teacher(mother)-directed learning with small amounts of direct instruction followed by letting children lose to explore various possibilities. She ensured that children achieve certain benchmarks at a specific age and offered a more child-centered education that creates opportunities for exploration instead of rote learning.
We must find a balance in our home classrooms!
Play does just that, as it encompasses knowledge building, problem solving, communicating, and collaborating with the fun element intact.
A play date turned into fun learning
While it is easier to teach a child what a coin/note is by ‘reading a lesson’, Swati set up an act for a more real and fun learning at her son’s birthday.
She set up a supermarket scene at home to teach group/community dynamics along with what money is to a pool of 5 toddlers who came to the party.
Aarushi and Ananya were buying items at the “supermarket,” Swati had labeled all items with a certain price. All items for sale were sorted (kids drew all that they would sell) and a checkout area was set up with bags and play money. Before starting the activity, Swati used an opportunity to introduce money by herself playing along.
She walked over to Ashwin’s shop of fruits and asked “How much are the grapes?” “10 rupees,” he replied. She took out her purse and emptied it upside down. A handful of coins of various denominations moved out. “Can you help me? What coins do I need for 10 Rupees?” she asked. Ananya said, “Look for the one that says 10 Rupees.” “But none here says 10 rupees” Aarushi said with a sad face. “Well, maybe we can use 2-3 coins to make 10,” Swati said. She took two 5Rs coins and gave to Ashwin. “5 plus 5 makes 10” she said and took the grape drawing from Ashwin.
Later, she drew various coins on the home mini-board while circulating the real coins amongst kids, naming them and their characteristics and how they were used in the real world, using magnifying glasses as tools. Post discussion, the coins and magnifying glasses were left on the table, where the children could touch and use it again and again to ask more questions.
In another such activity at the playdate
Swati introduced a pack of cards. Amit and Vineet grabbed them. They looked tentatively at each other, then turned to her, saying, “Aunty, we’re not sure what to play”. She showed them a card game in which they would learn numeracy skills and memory. She explained that the first player turns over a card. The next player rolls the next card and this process continues till two consecutive players have the same number or same colour card. If it matches, the player wins and they get another go. She explained the need for a “caller” who distributes the cards and directs the other players when to flip over their top card.
After one round of play, Swati excused herself from the game to observe; the players all agreed to vote on who will become the caller. Vineet was chosen, but it wasn’t long before her son Mohit threw his cards on the floor, frustrated that Vineet was telling him what to do. Swati reminded the group about their vote, and they continued playing.
Later, when another child joined in, the same problem arose—but the children didn’t need her help. Mohit explained that one person needs to be the caller.
Conclusions & Inferences: (Observing, Planning and Guiding-Analyzing play routines microscopically)
From the above examples we see that Swati
- Plans– Invents new angles to simple games to encourage fun learning in kids and shows them once around the ground rules. As an instructor, she selected a game that would develop their academic and social abilities. By strategically expanding play and asking questions that challenge children’s thinking, parents create meaningful learning opportunities to help children draw an understanding between their observations, ideas, and judgments and even help them regulate their feelings.
- Observes-How the children are doing about the play and where all they are extrapolating the learning. They must figure out how to quietly intervene to help children connect contexts to everyday concepts and academic content, leading to further cognitive, social, and emotional development.
- Guides– When the first dispute occurred she became the mediator, emphasizing the agreed-on rules. During play, parents/caregivers are researchers, observing and guiding children to decide how to extend their learning.
A mix of child-directed and guided play should be incorporated into the day. When the play environment is intentionally created, the learning that occurs is as deliberate and logical as any teacher-directed lesson, yet the activities are offered in a manner which is fun and appropriate to the development of your child.
Conclusively, caregivers/parents should routinely ask themselves–
“How can I extend the play experience that I’m watching to connect it to the learning concepts I intend to teach?” With a slight tinge of fun and keen observation, parents can holistically blend the two perfectly! For more details, read Intentionally crafting play learning.
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