Playful Learning Can Cost Nothing

Slip on those rose-tinted spectacles and cast your mind back to your childhood. What do you see? We see making dens, playing with cardboard boxes and acting as if they were spaceships, shadow-puppets, kiss catch and tag - all such wildly different adventures and games which kept us stimulated, happy and engaged with the world. They all have just one thing in common: they didn’t cost our parents a penny.

In this age of iPads, Xbox 360s, smart-phones and bmxs, we seem to have collectively fallen prey to the illusion that our kids need all the latest gizmos and gadgets. It’s typical of parents of our generation to get sucked in by the idea that our children need all the latest, plushest, costliest toys and devices to be the best they can be, but did Albert Einstein have a Gameboy DS?  What about Leonardo Da Vinci, Virginia Woolf? We think not.

Play is all about learning how we interact with the world, so as a matter of fact, the more back to basics we go with it, the better children will learn about their relationship to people, objects, plants, animals, everything... Here are a few tips for some great play activities that’ll banish any thoughts of games consoles with a side helping of debt management to the shadows

In the garden - There are countless opportunities for your kids to learn through play in your own garden! See what insects, birds and flowers they can name, let them plant some seeds and teach them how to be gentle with nature - they say you can tell a lot about a person from how they act towards animals. Don’t have a garden of your own? Why not take your child to a local park or community gardening project?

Pets - Pets teach kids a great deal about life, the universe and everything! There are loads of animals great and small in desperate need of a good home in RSPCA centres and other charitable facilities up and down the country. A pet is one constant playmate and companion that’s never going to lead your son or daughter astray!

Make believe - There’s nothing more important to your child’s development than the nurturing of their imagination. Encourage your youngster to pretend to be different characters, dream up and write stories, make dens and act out their zany imaginings. Make believe is the best possible way to foster creative thinking in a child at a critical stage of the brain’s development. Whether it’s charades, shadow puppets, role play or writing stories, getting those cogs whirring is a great and economical way to have fun.

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