Value of Loose Parts

I've been observing some amazing play recently, and I think it's in part because of the loose parts play that the children have taken to! 

As you are all aware, Perfect Harmony has been in operation for only a few months, and right from the get go the children have been offered materials that, for the most part, do not some from any catologue, and generally have come from an appeal to our families to take a second look at the junk that would usually get tossed to the curb, junk that we would consider beautiful and inspiring!

In our modern age of technology children are exposed to so much and it can (not always, but usually) inhibit a child's right to play. Did you know that the United Nations actually made it an actual right for children to play? It's right there alongside the children's right to an adequate standard of living and health care, and even the right to be alive! Play is the way that children learn and I think it is so important that children are given access to items that promote play, and promote creative inventive play!

How often do you purchase a toy for your child that comes equipt with all the bells and whistles, and after two weeks of solid play it's left abandoned gathering dust (or even broken for that matter)? A box, on the other hand, has so many uses and can lead to some wonderful creative play. After two weeks of it being a rocket ship, it could turn into a house, or a giant bug, or a car, or a zoo, or a hospital, or an igloo... it's endless! And really do we care if it's not standing up on it's own anymore, do we care that it's drawn all over, or ripped to shreds (this is the best when we can stick it in some water and put it in the blender and make some paper from it!) 

Sometimes it takes a while for children to embrace the loose part play and with a little encouragement and provocations towards using their imaginations we could be looking at children creating an arcade!

I have been in the field of Early Education for 15 years and it's always the same, whatever action figure or Disney character is big at the time is usually incorporated into their play, it's natural, and it's also important. Because children mimic what they have seen or experienced, it usually reflects in their play somehow. Lately, with the group of children in the program it is directly reenacting Cars 2, this is typical and what the children know. 

The thing about the loose parts is that often the supplies are there for the children reenact these stories, it just takes imagination. BUT, the other wonderful thing that loose parts provide is the opportunity for children to think outside of the Pixar, Mattel, Disney world and look at their own world and their make believe world and make wonderful stories up themselves. It happens and it's neat to see. I've been really watching the children closely and writing down quite a bit of their dialogue and taking photos and I have seen some inventive things. When I have my clipboard out they often will shout out, 'I'm using my imagination!' And they certainly are!

 I love, love, love, love loose parts!