The Value of Play - why it is so important.

Playing is such an important part of your child's development. Today children have so little play time, being squandered by busy schedules, television, and even homework. There is a genius in play that it actively evokes and developes your child's understanding of himself and the world around him or her. In play is the foundation of learning for your child that will build a sense of the real world, that will build creativity for a lifetime, that will even build an understanding of mathmatical, physical, and language concepts. Truly, today play may be the missing element in your child's education. Our toys are educational because they promote good heathy play and help make your child smarter.

Here is what is being said about play....

It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.
--Tina Bruce, Professor, London Metropolitan University


Play is a major avenue for learning to manage anxiety. It gives the child a safe space where she can experiment at will, suspending the rules and constraints of physical and social reality. In play, the child becomes master rather than subject.... Play allows the child to transcend passivity and to become the active doer of what happens around her.
--Alicia F. Lieberman, author, The Emotional Life -- of the Toddler

Play for young children is not recreation activity,... It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity.... Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of-ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met.
--James L. Hymes, Jr., child development specialist, author

It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.
--Leo Buscaglia, author, educator

Close observation of children at play suggests that they find out about the world in the same way as scientists find out about new phenonoma and test new ideas. Young children may not be able to verbalize new ideas forming in their heads, but they may still apply similar processes to scientists. During this exploration, all the senses are used to observe and draw conclusions about objects and events through simple, if crude, scientific investigations.
--Judith Roden, Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University College

Adults who criticise teachers for allowing children to play are unaware that
play is the principal means of learning in early childhood. It is the way through which
children reconcile their inner lives with external reality. In play, children gradually
develop concepts of causal relationships, the power to discriminate, to make
judgements, to analyse and synthesise, to imagine and to formulate. Children become
absorbed in their play and the satisfaction of bringing it to a satisfactory conclusion
fixes habits of concentration which can be transferred to other learning.’
--BASS Early Years Advisory Team

It’s not so much what children learn through play, but what they won’t learn if we don’t give them the chance to play. Many functional skills like literacy and arithmetic can be learned either through play or through instruction—the issue is the amount of stress on the child. However, many coping skills like compassion, self-regulation, self-confidence, the habit of active engagement, and the motivation to learn and be literate cannot be instructed. They can only be learned through self-directed experience (i.e. play).
--Susan J. Oliver, Playing for Keeps

My Little Red Wagon carries a wide selection of educational toys that don't lack in fun! Kid's learn best through hands on play. You will find less electronics and computer games in our selection of toys because we believe children learn best through real life, in the flesh experiences. Dr. Healy, a well known expert in childhood development tells us that today's kids have fewer opportunities to free play, a key to the brain's healthy development of attention, motivation, motor skills, language, creativity, and social skills. Time spent in front of the television screen, she says, may lead to a generation of kids who spend less time understanding their role in 'the real world' -- the effects of which may not be apparent until later in life.

Young children require time to explore their inner and outer world through creative play -- which may oftentimes appear chaotic and repetitious to adults -- but which is essential to developing the neurological basis for intelligence and lead to healthy balanced and productive adulthood. Today's kids who substitiue "screen time" with play-time are at risk for developmental problems later in life, not the least of which is attention deficit disorder.

A great tool for childhood "brain building" is open ended toys. Open ended toys are ones that allow the child to create with many different outcomes. For example simple wooden blocks can be used to create and play in many different ways, creating cities, stacking towers, making a zoo, building new shapes and more. There is no wrong way to play. These are the type of hands on toys that teach our children about the world.

Great articles about toys and the value of play from ASTRA - specialty toy store association.