Learning through play ~*~ Summer engagement series, Part IV

I'm so excited for today's post! While I've enjoyed writing the previous posts in this series, I hope this one will truly be fun for me, for you, and for your family!

Today, we are talking about learning through play!

Given how the last few months of the 2019-2020 school year ended, I firmly believe your kids (and you) deserve to have some time to decompress and just enjoy life instead of trying to force a new method of learning and a new teaching model. But, as I explained earlier in the week, many families and teachers worry about "summer brain drain" or the loss of academic gains due to the lengthy period of time between the end of one school year and the start of the next. You may be worried that your student will have gaps in their education or skills or that they aren't learning enough this summer -- I also noted in our previous posts that your children's teachers are preparing for this. They know that the school year did not end ideally for most families and that many students merely maintained rather than making academic gains. Teachers and schools are already thinking about how to address this as the next school year begins this fall.

So, today, let's get back to focusing on FUN and PLAY! 

And, your kids, I promise, are learning as they play. In fact, for younger children, play -- not academics -- is one of the most important things that can happen on any given day. This is supported by quite a bit of research, and if you read our series reviewing the book The Trouble with Boys by Peg Tyre, you'll already be familiar with the fact that pushing academics too soon or under overly stressful situations generally backfires. Even if gains are made in those situations, they even out later in a child's academic career.

So, again -- FUN and PLAY are your prescriptions for this summer!

First, there are a few loose rules to ensure that your kids actually learn through play -- I know, counter-intuitive right? It actually makes a lot of sense. 

In order to truly learn from play, children need to:

• be free to engage in activities THEY choose, even if you aren't into it 
• find their activity enjoyable
• be allowed to be spontaneous, imaginative, and creative 
• be directed by their own internal compass
• risk and judgment free so they can express themselves without worry 

In other words, your kids need to be the drivers of their playtime activities and experiences. Your child may absolutely love an activity that you cannot stand. As the adult, it is your job to suck it up and let the kid indulge in the activity anyhow. They need you to be able to sit back and accept the silliest, wackiest, weirdest things they may come up with through creative play and imagination without criticism.

Now, of course, you need to make sure they are safe and not at risk of harm, but otherwise, leave the play session up to your kids. 

By freely playing and exploring their toys, found objects (cardboard boxes, empty toilet paper tubes, art supplies, rocks, etc.), your kids intuitively soak up lessons about how the world works. It is upon these intuitive understandings of the world around them that the foundation is built for more structured, formal lessons later in their academic careers. 

For many kids, true play is both a physical and mental activity. They move around and change positions. They use gross and fine motor skills. They examine and inquire. They form questions (all those "whys", am I right?). They touch, listen, look at, taste, smell the world around them. Even older kids do this, although older kids have typically developed better gross and fine motor control and better self-regulation so play for older kids generally looks and sounds significantly different than for younger kids. 

Be sure that your kids have access to plenty of games, toys, or supplies that are open ended and require your kids to formulate their own ways of interacting with the materials. For example, a large cardboard box affords hours and hours of creativity and play for most kids. So do blocks, Legos, paints or pens or crayons and paper, and so on. 

 
Be sure to check out the rest of our series on summer engagement:

• Preview: Summer engagement -- how to keep your kids learning all summer (Read it HERE)
• Part I: Is summer "brain drain" real and where do we go from here? (Read it HERE)
• Part II: Keep those kids reading this summer (Read it HERE)
• Part III: Bolstering math skills over summer (Read it HERE)

Teaching children responsibility through nature: in the garden and our backyard mini-farm

When I was a child, my family always had a little vegetable garden. Nothing huge, nothing fancy, but it was there. Every summer we had tomatoes and peppers, blackberries and cucumbers, and whatever else we happened to plant that year. It was fun being able to plant seeds, water, watch them grow and harvest our own food.  

This process became so important to me that I have made it a priority to have a little garden in each place I have lived. Sometimes my garden was a single pot or a small herb garden, sometimes my plants died or didn’t take. But now, I’m finally able to have a dedicated area large enough to accommodate just about anything we wish to grow.

 

Of course I have to involve my kids in this process!  

They both love gardening with me; although,  I don’t always love them “helping”! Yet, I’ve found a solution: I have allowed them to keep their own garden bed where pretty much anything goes.  Somehow their bed is blowing the others out of the water this year….maybe I should just use their random scatter method myself!

That said… I have one child who will eat anything--literally anything. She’s eaten snails, foam, play dough, and probably many other things I’m not aware of.  My son, however, is much pickier and not a fan of veggies whatsoever.  

Despite their differences in food (or non-food) preferences, we’ve been working hard on our garden and have begun to harvest a couple of things. Who would have guessed that my son will eat peas and tomatoes if he grows them himself? Score! That in itself is reason enough for me to keep gardening.

My whole point is that some of the best teaching moments are ones that are off the cuff, no pressure, and not rigid or structured.  That is what gardening has been for us.  My kids are still pretty young (5 & 3) so they need a lot of guidance and supervision. But, they don’t necessarily need “teachable moments.” They are learning plenty just by being outdoors and learning to garden. 

Some of the lessons that we’ve incorporated into gardening are: 

• Counting the days until our seeds begin to sprout 
• How seeds are harvested (what machinery, who does it, etc) 
• What do plants needs beyond sunshine and water? 
• Colors and how to tell when a food is ripe 
• Composting: how to determine organic matter vs. inorganic matter
• Life cycle of plants 
• Patience (waiting until a strawberry is ripe can be hard!) 
• Teamwork (we all rely on each other to keep our garden alive)

These are just a few of the more obvious lessons, but you get the point.

It’s amazing how many skills can be incorporated into a seemingly simple task. Equally as important are the life skills that they are learning from participating in our family garden. Learning where your food comes from is important!  Also important is having a healthy understanding for how much work goes into planting, tending and harvesting our food. It’s a much more complicated process than just driving to the grocery store.

In the last couple of years we’ve added chickens to our little hobby farm and it has been amazing! We got our flock as chicks and have hand raised them so they are friendly and tame--so tame that they’ll sit on my kids’ heads and even the dog’s head! We have two laying eggs now and two more that should do the same later this year.

It’s been great for my kids to learn to care not just a garden, but also for a tiny little chick. Both kids have learned to be patient (sometimes), gentle, and kind.

Now they have the added responsibility of feeding and watering the chickens, checking for eggs, cleaning the coop and securing them at night. These are some of the best life lessons that I would never know how to teach them otherwise. 

Of course, this isn’t specific to chickens or a garden; it could apply to any type of animal, hobby or chore.  It’s just worked out great for us, and I’m really impressed with how well my children have been taking care of both the garden and their chickens. 

Plus, who wouldn’t love having these little mini farmers running around?

You should also know that my children have become obsessed with chickens--that could even be an understatement.  For example, they dress the chickens up, bring them in the car when we’re running through a drive-thru, they watch movies with the chickens, cuddle them and let them “free range” in the house every time I turn my back. It’s cute…I may be a little obsessed as well!

By nature, my kids like to be outdoors so I never feel like I’m having to coax them outside.  I know that isn’t the case with all children as all kids (and adults) have their own interests that they gravitate towards. However, I think that there is something about being outside that cannot be replicated indoors.  

You don’t have to live in the forest, on a mountain or on the beach to appreciate this.   

I’m talking about simply being outside of your home. It could be in your yard, at a park, the river or wherever you enjoy nature.   

It’s important that children learn essential life skills that they may one day need to rely upon, and often that includes knowing how to conduct themselves outside the walls of their own homes and how to take responsibility for something. 

To my family, being outdoors is a must and is essential to our mental health. I can already see the impact it’s had on my kids…I can’t wait to see what else piques their interests. 

What are your favorite things to do outdoors with your children? Do you have a garden that they help with? If so, what role do your kids play? How are your kids learning without obvious “teachable moments”? I’d love to get some more ideas!