As adults, we are concerned with the outcomes or the product of our efforts. We want the report to look nice, the cookies to taste great, or the hedges to be perfectly straight. We participate in few activities just for the fun of doing them. This is due in part to the fact that we are not still learning most of these activities.
If you remember when you first learned to play tennis or use a computer you needed a little time to play with it and explore what happens if you did it this way or that way. It is the same for your child. He is learning new things all the time and needs the freedom to try things out without worrying about the product.
Luckily, young children naturally are more involved with the process or the doing than they are with the end product or results. That’s why your child might draw all day long and not be able to tell you what he drew or pour sand back and forth between containers for hours in the sandbox and not get bored. He may stack blocks and knock them down and stack them over and over again. Your child is learning about beginning writing skills, cause and effect, textures, and trying to master a skill. He is finding out that doing for oneself is very satisfying and that builds confidence.
The daily notes that you receive each day from your child’s preschool should highlight the activities that your child participated in that day. Sometimes there will be an end product and sometimes the outcome will be that he learned to pedal a tricycle, made sandcastles outside or learned a new song in music. Be sure and ask your child to tell you about the activities that he enjoyed that day. So be patient and allow your child time to grow and learn through various types of processes that are a part of the task. This is truly learning through play.
Source: Crème: The Scoop, Fall 2010, Volume 8 Number 4
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