Our Navarre Childcare Professional Discusses the Intuitive Process of Unstructured Learning
What’s the secret to the world’s top education systems in childcare?
It’s not super-strict teaching or twelve-hour days. Instead, they build their education on a principle that anyone can use. It’s called learning through play.
You may have heard about the importance of play in the learning process, but do you know how many benefits it has for your child in Navarre? If not, let’s learn how play can develop your child’s cognitive skills.
Mind and Body Develop Together
Is your four-year-old ready to sit at a desk for two hours to take notes on Shakespeare’s Macbeth? Likely not. However, that doesn’t mean that she isn’t ready to learn.
Play-based learning concurrently develops your child’s physical and cognitive competencies. Simply put, your child’s mind and body can develop together. Creativity encourages neural growth.
What does this mean? Play doesn’t just develop fine motor skills in art or make-believe activities. It also helps your child’s brain wire together in exciting new ways.
Mirrors the Real World
Think back to the last problem you had to solve, such as:
- Finding your car keys
- Remembering your grocery list
- Smoothing things over with a colleague
- Figuring out how to use the newest software
- Cooking a new recipe
- Explaining something to your child
None of these problems come with an answer in the back of a textbook. Instead, they require you to draw on a range of skills from interpersonal, academic, and practical, to come up with a creative solution.
Teachers are increasingly aware that their students don’t just need hard academic skills to succeed in their adult lives in Navarre. They also need a range of soft skills, including lateral thinking, resilience, and creativity.
Those skills don’t come from a book or test. They come from play. Creative learning develops all these skills and more.
In other words, it helps children learn real-life problem-solving skills. These form the foundation for real-world success.
Builds a Love of Learning
A major criticism of the unstructured learning model is that it doesn’t demand enough from students. Some teachers and parents fear that without constant discipline, children will be lazy in academic learning.
In fact, research shows that emotion plays a key role in the learning process. Emotionally engaged kids retain more material. In addition, they build a lifelong love of learning as well.
Far from stunting learning development, play-based learning does the opposite. It instills a lifelong love of learning in children. This means that they stay self-motivated to learn from early childhood through adulthood.
The Joy of Learning Through Play in Navarre
There is no reason for learning to take the form of joyless drudgery. Learning through play is effective and research-proven. Even better, it brings joy to your child’s life.
If you’re ready to help your child thrive through educational play? Then it’s time to reach out to Grow With Us Learning Academy if you are in the Navarre area. We take fun learning seriously with age-appropriate educational activities.
Contact us to learn about our programs today.