Why We Learn Through Play

Visitors sometimes look around our kindergarten room and ask when the children do their real learning. The honest answer is that they are doing it right now, in the block corner, the sandpit and the dress up rack. Play is how young children make sense of the world, and it carries far more learning than it appears to. Two children building a tower are testing balance, negotiating whose turn it is, counting blocks and problem solving when it falls. That is mathematics, physics, language and social skill in one activity, and the children are fully absorbed because it was their idea. Our program follows the Early Years Learning Framework, and our educators plan around what children are already interested in. If a group becomes fascinated by the construction site down the road, that interest turns into measuring, drawing plans, learning the names of machines and writing signs for the site. The learning outcomes are deliberate, but the starting point belongs to the children. Play based learning is also the best preparation for school. Children who have spent their early years playing arrive able to focus, take turns, follow instructions, ask for help and recover from getting things wrong. Those habits carry a child through the first year of school far better than being able to recite the alphabet early. What you will not see here is a room of four year olds at desks completing worksheets. What you will see is children who are busy, curious and confident, with educators alongside them asking questions, adding materials and quietly stretching the thinking a little further. If you would like to see it in action, you are very welcome to book a tour and spend some time in the room