It is time for IPA Aotearoa NZ to launch our own new campaign, DID YOU KNOW? With our DID YOU KNOW campaign we want to drive awareness as to what play is, and how important and fundamental play is. Our goal is simple – through this campaign, we want to protect, preserve and promote the right to play for all tamariki and rangatahi. In this blog article, you find all the information we have put out there during our DID YOU KNOW campaign on our Facebook page 🙂
The Declaration on the Importance of Play reaffirms IPA’s stated aim and intent to:
• Protect the right to play
• Preserve the right to play
• Promote the right to play
And that is exactly what IPA Aotearoa NZ stands for. IPA commits to promote the position that playing is a vital, universal behaviour, essential for children to be children and thrive in the modern world.
Did you know? Play is a Human Right
Article 31 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child states that all children have the right to rest, leisure, play, recreational activities, cultural life and the arts. IPA Aotearoa NZ\\Te Rōpū Tākaro exists to protect, preserve and promote this right for all tamariki and rangatahi. Play is a fundamental part of life; it is a biological, social, cognitive necessity for individual children, but also has benefits for society and the human species.
Did you know that play is intrinsic to children?
They just do it! It is a process that has evolved because it advantages the development of bodies, relationships and minds. For example, simply moving the body contributes to efficient and effective muscular growth and physical health and wellbeing. Playing helps children with flexibility, agility, balance, coordination and satisfaction. Play takes many forms, replicating the evolution of play through bodily actions, social interactions and the development of symbolic thinking.
Did you know that play can create a state of flow?
Peter Gray describes the characteristics of play and notes that play is conducted in an alert, active, but non-stressed frame of mind – this is the ideal state of mind for learning, creativity, insight.
- Play is self-chosen and self-directed. Play is how children learn to initiate and direct their own activities. In social play children learn to negotiate and learn to attend to others’ needs.
- Play is intrinsically motivated. Play may have goals, but the goals are subordinate to the means.
- Play is guided by mental rules. Play is nature’s way of teaching children to control their impulses and behave in accordance with shared conceptions of how to behave.
- Play is imaginative. Play is in some way mentally removed from the real world.
- Play is conducted in an alert, active, but non-stressed frame of mind. Note how this follows from the other characteristics. Some call this state flow. This is the ideal state of mind for learning, creativity, insight.
Did you know that play is love and connection?
Actively playing with children is the most powerful way we can connect and fill a child’s love cup. The kind of play children often enjoy the most is the kind of play many parents do the least. This is the physically active play of chase and capture, hide and seek, piggybacks, pony rides, and the roughhouse wrestling that makes children giggle and laugh and ask for more. This kind of play emotionally connects adults and children and strengthens the bond. As Lawrence J. Cohen the author of Playful Parenting summarized: “The single most important skill parents can acquire is playing.”
Did you know that play is child-led, process not product, creative, spontaneous and FUN?
We really like to define play as on this blog ‘More Good Days: Parenting Blog about play-based learning!’
- Child-Led. Freely chosen. The child is in control. He makes the plan.
- Process, Not Product. Play is done for its own sake, not to accomplish a task. It involves lots of exploring of possibilities, experiments, trial and error, and repetition.
- Creative. The child can adapt items, create something new or experience things in a new way.
- Spontaneous. It’s flexible and open-ended, and it changes and evolves as play time goes on.
- Fun. The player looks happy and engaged.
Did you know that play is risky?
Risky play is thrilling and exciting play where children test their boundaries and flirt with uncertainty. Children need the risk in play for their later life. Preventing kids from exploring uncertainty could have unintended negative consequences for their health and development, such as increased sedentary behaviour, anxiety and phobias.
Seeing children engaged in risky play helps to realize that they’re much more capable than we think. When they’re given the chance, even very young children show clear abilities to manage risks and figure out their own limits. Then how will children learn about themselves and how the world works if an adult is constantly telling them what to do and how to do it?
We all know, there are a lot more reasons, thoughts, and inspirations out there about how wonderful play is and what it is all about. We would love to hear from you. Let us know what play means for you? Just leave a comment below.
And most importantly have fun playing 🙂
https://gooddayswithkids.com/2014/09/24/play-based-learning/
IPA Aotearoa NZ is a branch of the International Play Association (IPA World) and is a non-governmental organisation that exists to promote the child’s right to play, their way.