Revisiting the Power of Play
Dear Members, Visitors, Friends, and Community Partners,
Sometimes when things feel entirely upside down, you can come back to the basics and remember what is most important. For us, this means revisiting the power of play. For decades, we’ve designed exhibits, educational programs, and theatre performances to spark discovery and imagination through play. But, what does this mean? How does learning through play serve our children in our new reality of living during a pandemic?
Play develops at least three core skills we will all need to get through this together:
Play teaches children to adapt: Whether the tower of blocks falls down, a playmate won’t share, or you can’t quite get a drawing to come out just right, playing helps us learn how to change, to grow, to give it our best guess and keep the game going. As children play, they are unconsciously learning how to grow and adapt to the challenges that they will face down the road.
Play is a stress-reliever: Play not only encourages children to engage in activities and risks that allow important cognitive development, but it also removes barriers to this development and provides a distraction from stressful realities. Play eliminates fear as it empowers the child to develop essential skills, including self-regulation, perspective taking, curiosity, and listening which, in turn, help children process and combat anxiety.
Play encourages risk-taking: Play inspires children to try a wide variety of challenging activities, as well as try on new characters and emotions. This is particularly true in make-believe play as children create imaginary situations and perform real-life roles, like being an astronaut in space or a firefighter putting out a fire.
And so, we’re recommitting to sharing the power of play with our community to help children develop essential skills to adapt and thrive in this new reality. Although we can’t play together on our firetruck, space shuttle, or in the Have-a-Ball room, we’re here for you virtually with invitations to play together at home. Check out our online programming featuring live animals, making and tinkering, puppet shows, and playwriting challenges for inspiration. Or, simply follow your child’s lead. After all, we know children are the experts.
-The Museum & Theatre Staff