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Play Based Learning
“Both in the formal education system and in the homes of children, the focus on the value of play is rather limited. That’s really something we want to work on – to improve the understanding of the value of play and what play really can do, where more and more it is squeezed by a desire both from the formal system and from parents that children should learn specific literacy and numeracy quite early.”
-Hanne Rasmussen
The Five Criteria of Play by Dr. Peter Gray:
- Be self-chosen and self-directed
- Be done for its own sake and not an outside reward
- Have some sort of rules/structure
- Have an element of imagination
- Be conducted in an alert frame of mind
What happened to the play?
The sports and fitness site Stack recently published an article about the history of our diminished play time:
"The 1950s were something of a "golden era" of play. The post-World War II baby boom left no shortage of potential playmates for a kid, and child labor laws passed in the late 1930s meant children could no longer be forced to toil inside factories or coal mines. Schools had multiple recesses throughout the day, the concept of homework barely existed, and the school year itself was about 4-5 weeks shorter...
The rise of television made the indoors more attractive, sure, but it was the shift in parental attitudes around school, sports and free time that really changed things. Elementary schools (and schools, in general) began placing a greater emphasis on testing results and homework. According to the University of Michigan, students aged 6-8 went from having 52 minutes of homework a week in 1981 to 128 minutes a week in 1997."
Where do we go from here?
At the Dandy Lions School, we believe it is never too late to get play back into the daily lives of all children. Our school begins with unstructured play, moves into our daily lesson, morning snack, and right back into unstructured play as we transition to the forest. We change our location regularly to help facilitate exploration and testing the limits, aka 'risky play'. The trees, fields, trails, and water give us all of our inspiration to create new games with each other that help us process our developing intellect, and to try new feats with our growing bodies!
"When I try to explain what his day is like, I usually summarize it by telling people my son is basically getting his PhD in climbing trees."
-Casey, current parent
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