Children education through playing

Children Education through Playing
Introduction
Play is important to the learning process of children. Because a child engages cognitively and physically, it plays a big role in the learning process of a child. In fact, a child learns best by engaging in play, especially when it matters and put in the right context. By engaging students in play during the process of learning contributes in their ability to understand concepts the educator is teaching. In the rapid growth and development stages of a child, play significantly expands their thinking capacity. Additionally, play makes children physically strong, thus growing in a health way. There are a number of ways that educators could effectively use play in teaching children.
Since games allow students to think individually, then innovativeness is one of the most effective ways of teaching children by using play. Allowing students to take part in a game during the learning process allows them to be innovative in their thinking. This not only expands their thinking capacity, it also leads to a high level of creativity. The more students engage in play, the more they become innovative while developing ways and means of succeeding in the game. The outcome improves the knowledge of the child, which helps in improving their performance standards (Sandford, et al., 2006).
Building play collaboratively between the teachers and their students is another way in which teachers could use play in teaching their students. Building a model together in class engages the students, making learning more fun and entertaining. This also improves the socialization between educators and their students in class. Due to personal or domestic problems, some students find it hard to cope with others in class. This contributes to high number of shy cases among the students. However, shy people show tremendous improvement whenever engaging with their teammates during a game. This helps them overcome their shy nature.
Using music is an example of how educators can effectively teach their students. According to Jarvis (2002), music affects students directly. The fact that music leads students into the world of fantasy and imagination significantly contributes to the increase in their cognitive ability, and thus remembering more. The importance of music is evident from the effectiveness of use of music between public and private schools. Jarvis (2002) argues that the difference in performance between the public and private schools is that while private schools effectively use music as a teaching tool, public schools perceive music as a luxury.
Role-play and modelling is yet another way in which educators could use in teaching their students (MacDonald, et al. 2005). Students need to know that learning is enjoyable just as play. Teaching them in the confinements of the classroom in most cases makes the process less enjoyable and less interactive. Since at a tender age students’ brains are yet to develop to concentrate for long hours, play is essential in their learning process. This is however possible using interactive classes, such as the role-playing and modeling (MacDonald et al., 2005), which spices up the learning process. Additionally, students can remember what they saw and said better than what they are told. According to a report by Sandford, et al (2006), children remember vividly what they are shown, rather than what they are told. Thus, students engaged in play learning remember things between then those using normal methods of learning.
Play is an important teaching tool for children and thus, educators should consider its use whenever teaching young children. In addition to its immense contribution in the development of the child, play especially music makes learning interesting and entertaining to the students. The fact that students remember what they see and do rather than what they are told makes it necessary for educators to use play as a tool of education.
References
Jarvis, L., Odell, K & Troiano, M. (2002). Role-Playing as a Teaching Strategy, Strategies for Application and Presentation. Dissertation. Retrieved from http://imet. csus. edu/imet3/odell/portfolio/grartifacts/Lit%20review. pdf
MacDonald, R., Clark, M., Garrigan, E., & Vangala, M. (2005). Using video modeling to teach pretend play to children with autism. US National Health of Medicine, 42(1): 43–55
http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC2649844/
Sandford, R., Ulicsak, M., Facer, K & Rudd, T. (2006). Teaching with Games Using commercial off-the-shelf computer games in formal education, Futurelab. Retrieved from http://www2. futurelab. org. uk/resources/documents/project_reports/teaching_with_games/TWG_report. pdf