Play matters in preschool: Get to know it yourself!
Much has been written and said about the significance of play in a young (and even older child or adult) child's growth. I did a TV interview on this very topic last year. It remains a pillar in my counsel on preschool choice to parents.
While it is easy to imagine the many benefits of play, it is worthwhile immersing yourself in such play once in a while so you know, first-hand, for real, what it can really do for your child. I was lucky enough to be presented with just such an opportunity this week.
I picked my son (a Kindergartner now) from school and we headed to a neighborhood park. It was a chilly, gray afternoon and honestly, I had no interest in being outside. My son on the other hand moved with the ease of a gazelle on the African savannah. After a few minutes of a slow game of "Lava monster" he turned to me and said, "how about hide-and-seek since you don't seem to want to run much." This seemed like a good alternative. He counted while I hid. My first hiding spot was not far away, behind a wall that was part of a climbing structure.
As he opened his eyes and began his search for me, I caught a glimpse of him from my hiding spot. I could see his steady, gazelle-like movements from the corner of my eye. He moved and I moved to continue to see him all while hiding my body. Then, I thought I caught the corner of his eye and he mine. A shiver went down my spine. Was I discovered? Had the gazelle found its prey? Oh no! That was too easy. I couldn't have been caught so easily. I moved my body to hide it more tightly. He looked away. Perhaps he had not seen me. I continued to look at him. Then, he looked in my direction again. My heart was racing. He turned his head ever so slowly and from a gap in the wall of the climbing structure my eye did indeed meet his. Still unsure and ready to wow me with his find he moved closer, stealthy, slowly until he pounced out into the open when he was close enough.
We broke into peels of surprised laughter. His eyes lit up the gray sky! The shiver down my spine, the chill in my hands broke lose in a massive embrace. Oh, the thrill filled the playground.
It was a terrific moment of connection. Needless to say, our game continued on for another hour. What did we learn? How did this play matter? This play is not even the most brilliant example of the kind of serious play that preschoolers engage. That said, it did do a few significant things. It built relationship. I saw the world through my son's eyes. He through mine. He was trying to read my mind for places I would choose to hide in. I did the same. We both strategized though not verbally on the ways in which we could trick each other, up the ante in the game. We struggled with anticipation, patience, fear, excitement, delayed gratification. It was a head game, an emotional game and a social game.
Most importantly, I learned for real what it really means to play, like a child, to see the world with wonder, to know excitement that is so palpable and that comes from such a simple experience. I also learned that a child's play is not so simple — it is sophisiticated in its planning, in the mind games involved, in the strategies involved and in the relationships it builds.