The essence of play is learning, how to play to better promote learning. Many parents may not recognize this title very much, why play and learning can be related together. It was originally the opposite of the two things, well,
But you may have heard of a child who is called someone else's child. Usually, I don't listen carefully to the lectures when I go to class, and sometimes I don't write homework, but the results of the exam can be among the best. Have you ever noticed that this type of child has a common feature, that is, they are very good at playing.
Some parents may say that other people's children have a high IQ, so they all do well in school, and IQ definitely has an impact on learning. But in the case of the same IQ, learning with a different mentality will also make a world of difference.
So what can we do to make children as relaxed and playful as other people's children?
First, we must be able to encourage children to make some appropriate play
First of all, we have to realize from the concept that play can promote learning. Otherwise as soon as you see him playing with your fire, you can't control it. Secondly, we must also distinguish what kind of play is to promote his learning. Here I interject, playing electronic products, such as mobile phone computer games, this is not a beneficial play, this is definitely more harmful to children than beneficial. And that's something I don't encourage.
So let's analyze what the essence of play is. I don't know if you have ever reflected that most of our human habits and behaviors are not accidental, but have evolved over millions of years. If we can keep a habit now, it must have its meaning and value.
And playing itself is a waste of time and a waste of energy. In the process of evolution of food shortage for millions of years, human beings can preserve such a luxurious habit. The first thing a child does as soon as he is born is to observe everything, and when the child is older, he begins to touch all kinds of things, and then pinch him, throw him to see what will happen when he falls to the ground, what it feels like to pinch it, and then bite it with his mouth.
When the child reaches puberty, he will try many things that he has not done before, and it seems aimless. We call it play, but in fact the whole thing I mentioned earlier is he's exploring the world.
Everyone knows that the lunar rovers on the mainland have landed on the moon. So what's the first thing this lunar rover does after it reaches the moon? Do you know? That is, to scan the surrounding environment first, and then to sample the soil, these are all first to understand the environment, what is the purpose of understanding the environment? Only when you understand it can you develop it and apply it.
So what is the order in which we solve the problems? Is it also to read the problem first and then solve the problem? When a child first comes to this world, the process of understanding all kinds of new things in this world is the process of reading questions. And the problem we face is an infinitely large problem. The more known conditions you know, the more likely you are to get results close to the right answer.
Why are we always so happy when we play? Because doing this kind of thing is good for our evolution. Suppose there was such a family in ancient times, and their genes made them feel very painful when they played, would he play more? He won't play more, then if he doesn't play, he will lose the opportunity to understand the environment, then he will not be able to adapt to the environment. So over time, the family perished.
So the last ones who survive must be the family that likes to learn about this environment through play. And in fact, scientists have already studied this.
I read the original passage from The Gardener and the Carpenter, "They found that rats who lacked play in adulthood had difficulty getting along with other rats compared to the rats who had played in childhood, and their difficulties were very enlightening to us." They know how to attack, how to defend, how to show affection to other rats, how to retreat. But they don't know how to see the machine, whether they are fighting or giving, they can't react as quickly and flexibly as the rats they played with as children. They can sting like bees, but they can't dance like butterflies." How beautiful it is to say, you can sting like a bee, but you can't dance like a butterfly.
If you think about what this is like, this sentence reminds me that children who usually don't play very obedient, they will only follow the methods that the teacher told them to do, and they will not be improvised during the exam. That is, they don't dance like butterflies. And for people after work, those who do the same work in a fixed position, and can see what they will look like ten years later, they. It's going to sting like a bee. And those who constantly surpass themselves, constantly challenge the limits of their abilities, and thrive in their careers, they are dancing like butterflies.
In fact, scientists have found that play can cause the human prefrontal lobe to secrete a choline-like cerebral cortex. This cerebral cortex makes your brain more malleable and can change even after experiencing one big thing in adulthood.
Conversely, children who lack play in childhood become more rigid because the prefrontal lobe of the brain lacks this cortex stimulation. It becomes very difficult to improve and learn again as an adult. In fact, this distinction does not need to wait until he reaches adulthood, and it has begun to appear in high school.
Now I think most parents should understand why play can promote learning, and now what I want to do is to tell everyone how to play to better promote children's learning. Before I get to that point, I must emphasize that no matter how old your child is now, even yourself, your mind will become more flexible as long as you learn to play now.
The first point is not to stick to the rules, it is best not to have rules like textbooks.
Let me give you an example, if you are at home today preparing to cook with your child, you are going to teach him a shredded fish and meat, paying attention to sour, spicy, sweet and salty. You can make this dish according to the recipe. So if your child says in the process of doing it, Mom I like to eat this curry, I want to put some curry ok? Is it okay to put more of this old mother? At this time, you may say, do you see what is written on the recipe? Don't let it go, it's a strange smell when it's finished.
This approach may be more conducive to the child's delicious or more standard fish and meat shreds today, but it will deprive the child of an opportunity to try to explore. Have you noticed? What is the difference between our thinking and that of children? We value the goal more, and the child values the opportunity to explore. The result? Our approach is more conducive to completing tasks, while the child's approach is more conducive to self-cultivation.
In recent years, domestic science toys are very popular, its meaning is science and technology, engineering, mathematics. It is to integrate the knowledge of these disciplines into the toy to play. It was a good idea,
But after I searched for some of these toys on Taobao, I felt sorry. Because I found that all these toys are bought, it has a set of fixed drawings, fixed gameplay, and must play according to this fixed rule. I felt that this kind of toy limited the child's imagination and design ability.
And I went to foreign e-commerce sites and saw how they sell this kind of stem toy. I was surprised to find that they were exactly the same as I thought, this kind of toy with fixed drawings and fixed gameplay, which was specially tailored for the Chinese market.
Because Chinese parents like this, I don't care what you learn, I want me to see a result. This is the mentality of Chinese parents, while the mentality of parents abroad is that I don't necessarily see results. I just want you to think about it in the process, so I see that this toy of theirs is a lot of selling accessories, and there is almost no fixed gameplay and stuff with fixed drawings.
Therefore, their educational philosophy is different from our educational concept, and the resulting results are naturally different.
Everyone always thinks that american education is better than our education, but the advantages of others are here, have you learned? So I am more inclined to buy Lego parts for the child, rather than buying him this kind of drawings, because the drawings are a thing that restricts his thinking, only by leaving the drawings, he can assemble his favorite things according to his own thinking and his own design.
What impressed me even more was that I once took my children to an amusement park to play with toys. I saw a father with his daughter there to play with a house building toy, the daughter set a piece there, the father glanced at the drawings to compare, a little different, the father immediately shouted loudly, the child trembled and took the board back, feeling that the child was not playing at all, but completing the homework given by the father.
This child I asked, is in elementary school, if this continues, this child will come to junior high school, mathematics, physics and chemistry must not be good, and very tired. And the pressure from all sides could lead her into a depressed state, even if it doesn't. It is also likely to label it as a poor student.
At that time, when parents may complain that their children do not study hard or complain about others, why is my child so stupid? In fact, it is caused by the parents themselves. In fact, the child is not smart, more is not before birth, but how do you cultivate him after birth? I believe that there are many parents who play with their children in this way, which is too sad.
Of course, we are not completely unable to look at the drawings, the key is what your attitude towards the drawings is, whether you regard it as a holy will, or as a reference. We don't want to raise our child to be a production line worker, we definitely want him to go from imitation to innovation. But if the child, when imitating it, worships it as a holy will, he will not dare to transcend it in the future.
There's a better way to play than building a toy the way you're drawing it, where you take the unprepared materials in reality and make them look like you want. For example, when I was young, I often used some packaging boxes, foam, and cartons. Make boats, make cars, make airplanes, these toys are the same as these vehicles I see in pictorial newspapers or in real life, what about the drawings? Right in my head, I had to imagine how this thing would be designed and what materials would be needed. I then analyze whether I can meet my requirements based on the existing materials, which is called developing a feasible plan.
Then go to the material and finally stitch it together. Therefore, the entire design drawing, the determination of the feasibility plan, including the processing, were all completed by myself.
So my imagination and ability to conceive now are particularly strong. The thing I came up with was basically eighty or ninety percent feasible. After the reality, there are very few areas for improvement, which is the process of cultivating abstraction ability.
And when you calculate physical chemistry problems in middle and high school, you use this abstract thinking ability of yours. Because those beveled balls are not in reality, it all depends on the dynamic drawing in your head.
Speaking of which, some parents may think that my child is so old that he will still play with these toys? I tell you, adults abroad are playing, and at what age you can play, your progress will continue to last. Live to play to old, live to learn from old, the above is the first principle of play.
Then the second principle is that if you want him to be able to explore something, or if you're suddenly interested in something, you can pretend to have accidentally discovered the secret, but don't make him feel like you know this thing well before. You leave the opportunity to explore to your child.
As another example, I once chatted while watching TV at a friend's house, and the child happened to be next to me. I saw a prism in his living room, and I wanted to guide this child to explore the mystery of the prism.
So I said that the sun was too harsh, or we would close the curtains and watch TV. Then as I was pulling the curtain, I deliberately left a little slit, and a ray of sunlight shot into the living room through the gap in the curtain. Then I was playing with the prism while watching TV, and I pretended that I had no intention of the sun shining through the prism. At this time, I was going to pretend to be surprised to find that there was a rainbow on the white wall opposite.
At this time, the child was successfully attracted to my attention, and then he took this prism and looked at it carefully, and then played with it for half a day. But on the contrary, if I take this prism and tell him like a teacher that I am going to teach you the principle of dispersion today, it is estimated that this child will not be so interested in this thing.
Scientists have done similar experiments, and they have indeed proved my point. So why is there such an outcome? Because you're doing this by pretending that you accidentally discovered it, that means you don't know more than your child. He would feel that if I explored it now and found more regularities, I would know more than you knew.
Instead you know everything. Even if I explore it, I can't show how good I am, so what interest do I have? And the way we use to teach children also brings some problems in itself. The child will think Oh, you teach me, it means that you are better than me, I don't want to admit that you are better than me.
So I won't learn from you, so his interest will also decline. So we often say that we should educate children, what is edification, that is, you know, but you did not force him to learn from you. At this time, he is more likely to be willing to take the initiative to learn from you.
What I said above is how to play with children, which is summed up again,
First, let's not be too strong to be the person who makes the rules, the rules can be discussed by two people together, and the cooking thing must be done in the original way? The dish of shredded fish and meat was also invented by a certain chef in the past, so why can't I reinvent one?
Second, in the process of playing, try to keep the information equal with the child, even if your information has an advantage, you can not use your information to crush the child. Of course I would like to mention that video games are definitely not the kind of effective play I am talking about. Of course, the most important thing is not what to play, but what kind of mentality to play. The college entrance examination and career seem to be very boring things. But in fact, if you use the right mindset, you can easily achieve results that far exceed expectations.
I also hope that everyone can read this article with a playful mentality, and do not strictly follow the method I have described to play for children. Because that's not a play, it's a task. So I hope you can learn from each other.
So today I will also leave you a small assignment, of course, I hope you do not complete the homework for the sake of completing the homework. The first question is to think about whether your child has enough and effective play. Second, if not, what effective play will you look for him? In what way will you get him interested in these things?
You can send the answers to these questions to your circle of friends together with this article, and share your achievements in the comment area with the results of guiding your children to play with these things.