Play – one of the biggest source of learning. But why we need to associate everything with learning? Learning happens automatically. Just be the child with your child and experience the fun of being with children.
Having children means spending a lot of time on them. You feed them, get them ready for school, buy presents, take them to the dentist, supervise their homework, all of that and more. They are blissfully unaware of how much time and effort we adults spend to make their little lives possible. But definitely all these things make us stand out in the eyes of our children as ‘adult’. Do they know that we are children too?
Do we ourselves remember?
Your child would love to meet THAT CHILD in you and share a game with it. No, not playing cricket or going to game station , but making something together, imagining something together. When is the last time you went down on your knees, crawled along with cars or stuffed animals, talked funny, and got your fingers smeared with paint?
Most of us play FOR the child. Somehow we feel that the child needs a teacher, a guide, an adult to play with. We can’t be more wrong. We need to play WITH the child, just like another child. The child may learn from us, not by teaching, but by seeing us doing it. If we are going to say “See how I am doing, do it like that” – then the whole purpose of playing is lost.
It’s when we enjoy the activity ourselves, and let the child choose to learn from us, whatever he or she wants to – that’s when learning and playing of highest order is happening. You are also building great bonding and rapport. It does not have to be long and you may well find it gives you energy and a renewed sense of meaning to the entire daily care taking.