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Adventure & activity Centers For children are extremely fundamental part of their development. For children up to around age eight, play and learning are indivisible, as children learn by exploring the world and using their imaginations.
Unluckily, today's children live in a world much more controlled than that of their parents. Adults have tried to make up for the loss of liberty by substituting structured, supervised activities, like sports and lessons. But there's something missing, and it's by filling in the missing piece that play for children comes full circle, back to a kid, a brilliant imagination, and a natural world made for exploring.
For kids free play eludes precise definition, but it normally is enjoyable, energetic, creative, non-goal directed, impulsive, active, free of imposed tasks or adult-imposed rules, and requires active contribution. It's not play if it's controlled by an outside force, be it adult or machine.
Kids learn because of the experiences they have when they play, without being educated and while having enjoyment. They are motivated to explore and discover their environment. Kids express and represent their ideas, thoughts and feelings when they imagine. At the same time, they gain knowledge to deal with feelings, interrelate with others, resolve conflicts, and grow a sensation of competency. May be most significant, it is through play that children develop their imaginations and creativity.
Nature had the good sense to make play good and good for you. By making play fun, nature made children's play-based experiential learning distinct from more structured, education-based book learning of later childhood and adulthood. This also guaranteed that children would do it without whining.
A little child's mind is a fundamental reality machine that needs nothing more than the canvas - the objects and playmates - to link imagination to the genuine world. This is the age of fantasy friends, caves made of spaces and sheets and civilizations of cardboard and sand. The process of the fantasy is an end in itself, and must be scripted by the child from his or her thoughts.
Engage in recreation takes a lot of equipment. Loose parts, like sand and water, blocks, and found objects, are the vital tools. Loose parts have unlimited possibilities, and their total lack of structure and script allow children to make of them what their imaginations require. Through their handling and treatment of loose parts, children learn the rules and principles of the factual world.
However matter is not sufficient. Children also want to have history-making influence. They want play environments where they have the power to imprint themselves upon the scenery, provide the scenery with importance and experience their own activities as capable of transforming the environment.
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