This article highlights for me the depth of a "play experience" and that play is multilayered and takes time to unfold. There are so many emerging factors to witness. If we, the adults truly take time to observe that precise moment when a child(ren) has settled into the "heart" of their play, then we would not dictate the next thing because we would stand in reverence for what we see and feel happening.
and maybe as necessary to life. I wish more people would sit back and observe children at play. I think it would be interesting to attach go pro cameras to some kids for a couple hours and just watch through their perspective. . Someone could do a voicover describing all of the different types of learning happening in real time.
My 4 hour after school camps are amazing to watch. The kids are non stop. Except to eat, and sometimes not even then!
I will be sharing this with my colleagues to discuss.
I am anxiously awating the chance to order an english version of your book, Risky Play!
Yes, play is as complex as love - and actually has the same innate drive as sex - ie sex is the brain wanting to procreate, while play is the brain wanting to be able to adapt.
I often think that the best way to help others to notice and value play is to have two playworkers working together - one is "with" the children playworking (either hands off or hands on as the moment requires/invites) and the other one is with parents/adult onlookers - and they can point out the play, help them notice things that would have otherwise been missed, point out why the playworker does or does not do something so that they can gain a better understanding of adult impacts on play too.
I think this is better than filming - mostly because I think we can sense things too - the atmosphere of play also impacts the observers... and filming also excludes much the eye can see in the periphery that is actually very important.
Ellen Sandseter and her fellow researchers have used go pro cameras on children to observe how they engage in risky play.
There are also programmes where children are filmed and then commentary is made - and I feel quite dubious about those - as the children get to hear them (as children and later in life) and I don't think they fully realise the implications of this later in life and how that might affect them - live is so much better.
With my students at Stockholm University we watch a few films of children at play and then analyse what we see them doing (literally the verbs first) then we start thinking about the why and how and then what we could do to respond to that. And how those responses migh affect the children and their play and their learning.
But it is so interesting to sit and watch play for such lengths of time without having to have responsibility for the children - and this is what I have been doing in Asia as well and also in Greece... it is an enormous privilege - I am putting together a document about the play stories from the exhibition in London, that will eventualy be open to everyone.
This article highlights for me the depth of a "play experience" and that play is multilayered and takes time to unfold. There are so many emerging factors to witness. If we, the adults truly take time to observe that precise moment when a child(ren) has settled into the "heart" of their play, then we would not dictate the next thing because we would stand in reverence for what we see and feel happening.
yes, I absolutely agree... far too much interfering occurs due to adult lack of awareness, noticing and valuing the processes and doings of children.
Play is as complicated to define as love is-
and maybe as necessary to life. I wish more people would sit back and observe children at play. I think it would be interesting to attach go pro cameras to some kids for a couple hours and just watch through their perspective. . Someone could do a voicover describing all of the different types of learning happening in real time.
My 4 hour after school camps are amazing to watch. The kids are non stop. Except to eat, and sometimes not even then!
I will be sharing this with my colleagues to discuss.
I am anxiously awating the chance to order an english version of your book, Risky Play!
Yes, play is as complex as love - and actually has the same innate drive as sex - ie sex is the brain wanting to procreate, while play is the brain wanting to be able to adapt.
I often think that the best way to help others to notice and value play is to have two playworkers working together - one is "with" the children playworking (either hands off or hands on as the moment requires/invites) and the other one is with parents/adult onlookers - and they can point out the play, help them notice things that would have otherwise been missed, point out why the playworker does or does not do something so that they can gain a better understanding of adult impacts on play too.
I think this is better than filming - mostly because I think we can sense things too - the atmosphere of play also impacts the observers... and filming also excludes much the eye can see in the periphery that is actually very important.
Ellen Sandseter and her fellow researchers have used go pro cameras on children to observe how they engage in risky play.
There are also programmes where children are filmed and then commentary is made - and I feel quite dubious about those - as the children get to hear them (as children and later in life) and I don't think they fully realise the implications of this later in life and how that might affect them - live is so much better.
With my students at Stockholm University we watch a few films of children at play and then analyse what we see them doing (literally the verbs first) then we start thinking about the why and how and then what we could do to respond to that. And how those responses migh affect the children and their play and their learning.
But it is so interesting to sit and watch play for such lengths of time without having to have responsibility for the children - and this is what I have been doing in Asia as well and also in Greece... it is an enormous privilege - I am putting together a document about the play stories from the exhibition in London, that will eventualy be open to everyone.