UKMums.tv, along with their resident expert Dr amanda Gummer, are supporting the Make Time 2 Play campaign. For 3 weeks from the 20th May they will be creating discussion topics on the importance of play on behalf of the British Toy and Hobby Association’sMake Time 2 Play Campaign http://www.maketime2play.co.uk/.
The importance of play in the lives of children should never be underestimated. It is an essential aspect to the healthy development of young children and a fundamental part of learning.
The official advice is simple: children learn best through simple playtime which enhances problem solving skills, attention span, social development and creativity.
Incorporating fun themes into children’s learning makes the experience more memorable, more fun and less daunting so they will be more likely to want to do it again as they will be enjoying themselves.
Real-life experiences are the best ways for children to develop new skills and understanding. They can explore their environment and through trial and error hone their skills and make discoveries in a hands on way.
Children learn essential social skills through playing with their peers. Relationships are the bedrock of society and children who play develop mutually rewarding relationships, learn to compromise, communicate and negotiate, all of which give them much better outlooks as well rounded individuals.
Even the most frivolous activity is beneficial for children as it helps them understand themselves better – learning what makes you happy and what makes you laugh helps children cope with challenges and acts as a buffer against mental health issues such as depression and anxiety.
Join in with the Make Time 2 Play campaign on May 20th and join in the discussion on how to Make Time 2 Play with your children.
Young children love playing pretend games and I'll often find Freddy pretending he is a dinosaur, a lion or a dog in the throes of some imaginary game he is playing! They also love to move about: dancing, crawling, wriggling and jumping. Magic Moves is an electronic light-up wand that combines these two activities to provide a toy that encourages exercise, creativity and listening skills.
With 90 fun creative movements and 26 musical tunes, the Magic Moves wand gets little ones up and moving as they follow the spoken commands and pretend to be an assortment of animals and objects and move around and interact in special ways. Being a wand, children can imagine themselves being magically transformed into a hopping frog or a stomping dinosaur as they enjoy this high energy, creatively expressive game. To add to the magic, the wand has a light up bulb on both ends which play twenty-six different colourful, twinkling light shows.
I have been sent a Magic Moves wand for Freddy to try out. The wand is easy for a little one to operate with a play button and a repeat button as controls. Pressing play gives the child one of 90 different commands along with its music and light show. Pressing repeat allows the child to hear the last command again. Surprise commands enliven the game as children are told to Freeze, March or Dance along to one of three different style tunes (in Techno, Afro-Pop and Latin Salsa styles). When the command is heard, children can imagine that they are a bouncing kangaroo or a spinning top and move around the room whilst the music plays. It is a great way for them to get up and get active, whilst having some fun structure to their play.
Freddy, assisted by 10 year old big sister Kizzy really enjoyed playing with the Magic Moves wand and embarked on a session which entertained them (and me!) The wand engages them in a play session that uses their imagination, exercises their bodies and encourages creative performance. The lights, sounds and special commands add a real element of fun to playtime. It enhances listening skills, direction following, develops gross motor skills and also teaches some great vocabulary with verbs such as swooping, stomping and soaring allowing children to explore language and come up with their own ideas for movements. Freddy absolutely loves it.
The Magic Moves is an excellent educational resource for home or at school or nursery for children aged 3-7. I think it is excellent and am really impressed with how engaged Freddy is when he plays with it. It is also nice to have older kids and parents joining in, which is something little ones really enjoy.
There is nothing more wonderful than seeing a child at play. Witnessing the moment when your little one begins to make sense of their environment is magical. They come to realise that they can manipulate their surroundings and quickly their imaginations develop and play takes on a whole new deeper meaning. Physical, mental and social development comes through play. Confidence and self awareness grows. This natural process starts from the moment your precious baby focuses on the world around him and continues through their childhood journey and beyond.
Freddy is now 18 months old and a whirling dervish of high jinx. He finds entertainment in anything he can lay his hands on! Just today Daddy's 46" Plasma TV took the place of his Aquadoodle Mat when he decided to scribble all over the screen with a yellow crayon! His bucket of Toy Story 3 plastic soldiers are tipped out daily so that he can wear the bucket as a hat. Bricks are balanced on the radiators in elaborate architectural designs and his sister's Jessie doll is made to dance along the stair gate under his own imaginative choreography. Footballs in the garden can be kicked, thrown, rolled down the slide or chased after whilst screeching with sheer delight as they bounce away from his grasping hands unexpectedly. He experiments with things, testing toys to the limits, flipping his Sit n Ride over so he can examine the wheels and see how they turn. Be it indoors or outdoors, Freddy finds the fun in everything and faces the challenges of being a toddler full on.
Looking closely at his activities, I can see the cognitive processes whirring through his brain as he makes connections, develops his understanding and starts to make sense of the world around him. He counts his bricks repeating "One, Doo, Thwee" as he pops them in a line on his bedroom carpet. He rams cars into the back of his big truck learning about space and shape (and getting frustrated that he can't just keep pushing his little vehicles into the trailer...sadly the laws of physics can not be altered however hard he tries!). He hugs his teddy and exercises his nurturing nature, learning social skills as he passes teddy round for us all to cuddle in turn. His enthusiastic babbling will soon be honed into more coherent speech as he gives us a running commentary on his antics. His scribbles (which today were on the telly) will evolve into more deliberate markings before becoming emergent writing. As he sits on his beanbag and pours through the pages of his board books, and points with his chubby little fingers at pictures that catch his eye, I can just imagine him as a schoolboy reading the latest must-read kids' book. My little man, without even knowing it, is learning. Learning through play.
This post is my entry into the March Tots 100 Blog Hop. (which I was completely delighted to win!!!)
