Do kids have jobs?

If you are a parent one of your many 'jobs' is being your child's teacher. Your child's job? Your child's job is to play. Play IS work for a child's brain. The brain is designed for the first seven years of life to simply organize things. And organizing play is how the brain does just that. Not organized play, that is something that adults do to children-telling them how and what to play.

The brain's job is to organize all the sensory input it is receiving. Take opportunities to sit down and play alongside your child. As well, give them room to play as they wish. Remember, there really is no wrong way to play with a toy. Your child will play with the toys the way the brain needs to in order to organize itself. There are many times through out the day when we can help stretch or guide or children through an activity, we call this 'scaffolding.' Just like the scaffolding on a building builds on top of each level, you can help build on what your child enjoys by asking them questions. If your child enjoys playing with race cars, sit with them for a few minutes and then ask 'How else can your race car move? What other sounds does your race car make?' Questions that expand their thinking and challenge their abilities will help them learn while playing at the same time! And you will have spent some quality bonding time playing, and probably learning, from your child as well.