Imaginative Play

Creating The Storyline Of One's Own Life

We believe that the most important thing a young child can do is engage in developmentally-appropriate play that is creative and emulative.  At this age, important types of play include:

•  Individual (including solitary, onlooker, and parallel play)

•  Social / Cooperative (both small and large group)

•  Motor / Physical (both large and small muscle coordination)

•  Imaginative / Fantasy  (detailed mental picture making)

•  Creative / Artistic (mixed media creations & problem solving)

•  Discovery / Exploratory  (in nature and relationships)

•  Constructive (building towers, learning to use a broom, etc)

•  Musical (rhythm, melody, group singing)

•  Dramatic  (role playing, puppets, story telling, etc.)

Through play, children emulate what they observe and experience, experiment with the people, animals, and things in their environment, and assimilate the realities of their world.  They use body, emotion, will, and mind to explore, learn, and discover their place within – and their ability to influence – their surroundings.

Young children learn primarily through observation, imitation, and imagination.  When they imaginatively emulate the adults they observe, they are truly learning, and this learning penetrates deeply into the core of their feeling and will life with transformative power.

This is why the number one characteristic we look for in teachers is that they be worthy of emulation by young children -- because the inner life of the teacher weaves inexorably into the inner life of the child.  This manifests primarily in the nature and quality of each child's play.

Providing our children with a healthy play environment is one of the most important things we as parents

can do.  It is worth the attention, time, and money

we devote to it.

~ Peggy Alessandri,

Waldorf Early Childhood instructor and author

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