Let the children play!
Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Announcement on 30 Sep 2009.
Oops, I know this notice comes a little late, but there you go. Consider signing up if you are a Christian parent with young children, or if you are involved in children’s work and ministry.
I do think it will be extremely helpful to look at how ‘play’ forms a large part of child development. Unfortunately it is misunderstood as ‘unproductive’ and dismissed as a waste of time. So now you have children in preschool and kindy who are put through the academic grind – exams! tuition! – as if all that matters is a leg up in book learning. Here’s what the New York Times reported recently:
More recently, though, a backlash has been growing against the preacademic approach among educators and child psychologists who argue that it misses the whole point of early-childhood education. “Kindergarten has ceased to be a garden of delight and has become a place of stress and distress,” warned a report released in March by a research group called the Alliance for Childhood, which is advised by some of the country’s most esteemed progressive-education scholars. There is now too much testing and too little free time, the report argues, and kids are being forced to try to read before they are ready. The solution, according to the report’s authors, is a return to ample doses of “unstructured play” in kindergarten. If kids are allowed to develop at their own paces, they will be happier and healthier and less stressed out. And there will still be plenty of time later on to learn how to read.
‘Godly Play’ while built on similar concepts places the whole idea of play in the context of Christian education. It’s a method designed to help children develop awareness of God, the language of faith, and an appreciation of the sacred in their lives, through the use of child-centered and creative play activities.
Related links:
Godly Play UK – resources, training, and articles by founder Jerome Berryman
Children and Mature Spirituality – By Jerome Berryman on concepts and foundation of Godly Play
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