Mollygo
NotSpaghetti
Learning through play was what children used to do in a home situation-one adult to very few children.
The situations arose naturally, e.g. properties of wet and dry sand through play in a sandpit, (we had sand in a baby bath).
Or sorting things, buttons, toy cars etc. Cutting out paper dolls and clothes (scissor skills) then playing with them, (imaginative play. Building with wooden bricks or Lego bricks and finding out which structures were stronger. Involving adults in games and imaginative play, usually mum or grandma, but dads and granddads also played a part.
The problem now is that no UK government will fund a sufficient staff to child ratio for all children to benefit.
So learning through play, though effort is made to supply the necessary situations and equipment, is always going to be a watered down version of that parroted as the ideal from other countries.
Add to that that many parents of today’s children didn’t experience that for themselves so even if they keep their children off school (Covid) they don’t understand what learning through play involves.
Can't help but agree with this. I do not want the clock turned back nor women's opportunities curtailed, but I do think that small children are being sold short. They are being plunged into environments that require too much of them and supply little individual attention.
And then they are moved on to the demands of school which are too much too young. We then have an epidemic of diagnoses of neurodiversity of varying degrees. I am not suggesting for a moment that these problems do not exist, but the environments in which children are now raised are so abnormal to a child's nature that they throw up these problems as abnormalities in the child, rather than looking at the settings and diagnosing them.
I don't believe in governments raising a child and I don't think women should have children if they are not going to take responsibility for the child's upbringing I think there is validity in that statement, but would extend it to include both parents; and taking responsibility for a child's upbringing can also include settings outside of the home as long as these are age appropriate and sufficiently well-staffed and monitored and focus on learning through play in the under 7's.
Spending a while on Mumsnet can be interesting. The overwhelming thrust of posters' views is that women should be out in the workplace, primarily to protect themselves when their relationship breaks down - it is very depressing to read. And there are endless posts about how children are being diagnosed as ND, or having mental health problems in their teens. I do not know whether there is a causal relationship between this and their early child care experiences, but intuitively joining up the dots is tempting.
Whatever the facts might be, I feel very strongly that childhood is a precious and irreplaceable time in a person's life and the delaying of suppressing their natural instinct to imagine, play and explore the world with enthusiasm should be a priority.
And don't get me started on screens .........
