Play as Child's Work

06/08/2009

If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.
George Orwell

In her book, A Child's Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play, Vivian Gussin Paley talks about her introduction to the importance of play in the lives of children when she was a student teaching at Newcomb Nursery School in New Orleans. The director, Rena Wilson, charged the teachers with understanding children's fantasy play by using their imaginations. She said...

"Pretend you are the children playing. What are you trying to accomplish and what stands in your way? Act out what you've seen and fill in the blanks. Remind yourselves of what it was like to be a child."

Paley reports the results:

"In time we discovered that play is indeed work. First, there was the business of deciding who to be and who the others must be and what the environment is to look like and when it is time to change the scene. Then there was the even bigger problem of getting others to listen to you and to accept your point of view while keeping the integrity of the make-believe, the commitment of the other players, and perhaps the loyalty of a best friend. Oddly, the hardest part of the play for us to reproduce or invent were the fantasies themselves. Ours were never as convincing or interesting as the children's; it took us a great deal of practice to do what was, well, child's play in the nursery."

Exchange Resources on Play

Exchange has packaged six of its play resources into a single Play Tool Kit and is offering the entire set at a 37% discount. Resources in the kit include:

Books:

Beginnings Workshops Book #6 - Play
Promoting the Value of Play CD Book

Four Out of the Box Training Kits (Print versions):

Play and the Outdoors: What's New Under the Sun
But They're Only Playing: Interpreting Play to Parents
Supporting Constructive Play in the Wild
Designing and Creating Natural Play Environments

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