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Our society is slowly re-awakening to the realization that physical, creative, constructive, and imaginative play have an extremely important function for the healthy growth of children’s bodies, minds, and spirits.
We need to inspire and support play because it is so powerfully appealing to children’s sense of fun, to their imaginations, to their creativity, to their thoughtfulness, to their sense of wonder, and to their joy of accomplishment and achievement. Many years of working with teachers and children sharing hands-on experiences with an incredible range of recycled materials have shown us that unstructured, child-initiated creative play can strongly contribute to children’s growth and development. Our recent experiences with creative technology tools has led us to develop a combination of physical and computer-based play activities that support healthy cognitive development. Creative Play with Unstructured, Recycled Materials
Rich, stimulating, hands-on experiences create the necessary conditions for optimal mental development and set the stage for the introduction of higher order thinking skills in a variety of forms. Using materials donated by local businesses, thereby expanding their recycling and “green” programs, Walter has engaged the hands, hearts, and minds of children through their fingertips. Children think, plan, and observe what happens as they use these interesting discarded objects to count, sort, stack, build, and create art.
By simply fiddling around with and exploring a wide range of materials, children practice a wealth of brain-boosting skills that will serve them in school and throughout life. Making something no one has ever seen before requires imagination, vision, creativity, problem solving, and patience. Coping with the endless possibilities available through play builds the power to think and the ability to create harmony and order. Children who are skilled at play with both things and ideas are more receptive to ambiguity and more likely to envision multiple possibilities or solutions to problems.  As children engage in creative play, two things happen: their attention to the possibilities of the materials changes and expands, and their intention transforms and develops into a self-reinforcing learning experience. As they begin to create, they “make meaning,” which is to say that through their direct intention, they create a physical manifestation of their new knowledge. In this way children come to understand and believe that they have within themselves the power to organize and control materials and events in a satisfying and fulfilling manner.
As play opportunities increase, so does the capacity to pay attention to possibilities. This interactive process between the perception of expanding possibilities and the growing realization of intention is generally what we mean by creativity. |
Biography
 Dr. Henry Olds Jr.
Dr. Henry Olds Jr., an educational consultant in Arlington, MA, received his Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Recently, he has worked on creating software that engages students in authentic inquiry and in-depth learning.
 Dr. Walter F. Drew
Dr. Walter F. Drew is the Founder of the Institute for Self Active Education and the creator of Dr. Drew’s Discovery Blocks.
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