“the best classroom and the richest cupboard are roofed only by the sky.
Today, if children do not spend more time outdoors like children in past generations, then they are contradicting their genetic predisposition to be outdoor players and learners. Children come to this world with instincts to observe, explore, play, and converse with others
The relationship of children’s outdoor play and games is not a new phenomenon. Games are one of the oldest forms of social interaction and group socialization. Theorists including Plato, Froebel and Piaget determined that games play an important role in children’s learning and development. For example, in the early nineteenth century, with his pioneering work with children in his kindergarten, Froebel made the discovery of the importance of integrating games and play into the learning environment.
Piaget suggested that the development of children’s moral development and judgment is influenced by their ability to understand and follow rules of games.
- Physical Play: Includes active exercise play (e.g.: jumping, climbing, dancing, skipping, bike riding and ball play), rough-and-tumble (with friends, siblings or parents/ guardians) and fine-motor practice (e.g.: sewing, colouring, cutting, junk modelling and manipulating action and construction toys) (Whitebread, et al., 2012). There is no better place for active exercise play and rough and tumble play than the great outdoors!
- Play with Objects: This type of play involves children’s developing explorations, as young scientists of the physical world and the objects they find within it. When playing with objects, children set themselves goals and challenges, monitor their progress towards them, and develop an increasing repertoire of cognitive and physical skills and strategies (Whitebread, et al., 2012).
3. Symbolic play: As humans, we use a wide variety of symbolic systems including spoken language, reading and writing, number, various visual media (painting, drawing, collage), music, etc. During the first five years of life, children begin to master these systems (Whitebread, et al., 2012). Possibilities for symbolic play outdoors provide children with interesting alternatives and options to support their play.
- Soci-dramatic play: This is the most prevalent type of play, emerging around the age of one year old. High-quality pretend play has repeatedly been shown to be closely associated with the development of cognitive, social and academic abilities (Whitebread, et al., 2012). In outdoor environments such as forests, socio-dramatic play can flourish with the backdrop of the open sky.
- Games with Rules: Young children are strongly motivated to make sense of their world and as part of this, become interested in rules. They enjoy games with rules and like to invent their own rules, dependent on previous experiences and play partners (Whitebread, et al., 2012). Imagine the games that children could play in an open field!
History of Toys:
What did children play with when there were no toys? Children found toys in nature! Sticks!! Sticks can be used in imaginative play, as a tool, as a building material, as an art piece, etc. We see evidence of the beginnings of science, technology, engineering, art and math in young children who play with sticks as they test theories, create their own play items, build structures, use them in art or to create art, and as they classify and sort them. They have limitless potential
Cultural Diversity, Indigenous Culture and Outdoor Play
Huizinga (1950) positioned play as a cultural phenomenon. Similarly, Roberts, Arth, and Bush (1959) identified a classification scheme for games that suggested there was a relationship between the prevalence of games in a culture and cultural complexity. Norodahl & Johannesson (2015) and Preston, Cottrell, Pelletier & Pearce (2011) are among researchers who suggest that children’s play influences how they engage in cultural mastery. Cultural values are transferred through a variety of actions among children and adults including:
- The type of play that children are exposed to;
- The time given for play;
- The materials children are exposed to;
- The attitudes expressed towards play (Lancy, 2002).
Encultration: Is a process where, through play, children develop their understanding of the ways to act and refine the habits and perspectives required to support the beliefs, values and behaviours that are reflective of their families and the societies in which they live by imitating adult-like practices.