Playtime Beneficial

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Recommended: The importance of play in a young child

Playtime-- Supervised or Unsupervised, Beneficial or Not? After having talked to my sister, who is a first grade teacher, I began to wonder about recess and the importance of playtime for children in school. This raised a few questions for me, one being-- when our children play, should we let them do so as they please or intervene and provide structure to their activities (ie. gym)? I also began to wonder if different types of play benefit children more than others? Lastly, when they play, does winning or losing have any drastic effects on their development? Using the articles “Can Johnny Come Out and (Be Taught to) Play?” by Benedict Carey, “Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum” by Hilary Stout, “Fitting In Exercise, Between Math …show more content…

A three year old can scroll through a menu of apps on a phone with ease, but how many seven year old's do you know that can organize a game of kickball without the assistance of an adult? Therefore, to get kids to put down their tablets, gym class requires one to be active. Authority, such as a gym teacher ensures this. Recess, on the other hand, is highly unstructured. It is free time that many nowadays will take as a time to whip out there technology and without getting to into that, technology isn't always supportive of ones …show more content…

In “Can Johnny Come Out and (Be taught to) Play?” by Benedict Carey, he writes about Manhattan and how “City officials unveiled plans last week for a new kind of playground, outfitted with ponds, pulleys and bulky foam blocks intended to engage the imagination, and “play workers” to help guide fantasy play.” He is saying that a playground is being developed that is 100% supervised by designated adults. Whereas many argue against this form of play, I think it is more beneficial to kids than say gym or your typical recess. If we could bring in these playgrounds to some of our schools, giving kids a half an hour of play, I feel the results would be

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