‘Play is always important and in times of stress, it is vital to our emotional health and happiness.’ – Bridgett Miller
So many parents are worried because their children are not currently attending school and will miss out on learning. Take comfort in knowing that true learning happens best when children are feeling at rest in their relationships and are given the freedom and time to play.
The extraordinary circumstances we’re currently living in provide us with the much needed (and often wished for) opportunity to provide those very conditions:
1. Being at HOME, with the people they love and who love them is the best learning environment because they do not experience having to separate from their deepest attachments for long stretches of time.
2. PLAY naturally happens when children feel secure and taken care of by those around them.
3. More TIME means more opportunity to play because we’re not rushing off to do the next thing.
4. The FREEDOM to play naturally leads children to become creative and curious and learning spontaneously happens.
5. TRUE play – meaning expressive activities – like dress up, singing, dancing, drawing, moving, painting, baking, laughing are all opportunities for expression.
Emotional health requires what’s inside us to be expressed, not depressed, and as long as this happens consistently, we’ll be happier (and in the long term smarter) because of it.
As Dr Gordon Neufeld so wisely says, “Play is nature’s therapy” and it’s well within our reach and is needed more now than ever.
Don’t add to your list of worries that your children aren’t formally ‘learning’, they’re doing much more than that.
Take care of yourself and each other.
With love,
Bridgett ❤️