Parents of Mulberry Bush Montessori often ask me what the difference is between a child working and playing, as we tend to use the word “work” more than “play”.
Play is a wonderful word, which conjures up a sense of freedom and joy with little sense of purpose or goal. At Mulberry Bush Montessori we consider that this demonstration of freedom and joy is just as evident whether a young child chooses to work or play. We value the children’s engagement in any activity, which leads the child to a deep level of engagement and concentration. This kind of play is serious and hard work for the child. Play is the child’s work of self-construction.
It is universally agreed that play is the key tool for young children’s development and learning. Montessori refers to this intrinsically motivated activity of the child to be “work”. We can define all a child does naturally and spontaneously as “play”. Equally we could describe it as “intrinsic motivation” driven by very positive emotions toward self-development with a need to experience one’s own worth.
Children have their own agenda for development, which reveals itself through every activity they are engaged in, whatever we call it, work or play. Offer a child a choice between “pretend” cooking and “real” cooking and we soon see the true nature of childhood revealed to us. Equally, all children will engage in family role-play and gain enormous satisfaction in practicing and fulfilling the roles of their play scenarios.
From our perspective at Mulberry Bush Montessori, ‘play is work’ and ‘work is play’. The defining factors are freedom of choice, the exercise of will and deep engagement, which leads to concentration.
It is best defined by a four-year-old child who responded to the probing question from an inspector on being picked up by his mother, “So what did you do today? Did you work or play at nursery?” The boy’s response was, “I was building and writing!”
At Mulberry Bush Montessori we believe that MONTESSORI GAVE VALUE TO PLAY BY CALLING IT THE CHILD’S WORK.