Remembering to Play

Why unsupervised play benefits children

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 07 April, 2015, 6:03am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 07 April, 2015, 2:18pm

Annie Ho life@scmp.com

"Play is the most efficient driver of learning for children. This is as true of their cognitive development as their physical and emotional development." These statements introduce a chapter on remembering to play in Teach Your Children Well, by child psychologist Dr Madeline Levine.

She outlines the concept through a "time wheel": a pie-chart of a child's 24-hour day. There are fixed wedges of time each day for school, homework, meals and sleep. Whatever is left over is that "sliver of time" which is at the discretion of parents. We should fill up that sliver with fun activities, right? Wrong.

She argues that any activity that corrects, criticises or judges a child's behaviour is stressful and not fun. Splashing around in the pool is not the same as going to swim class where a coach is telling the child to swim faster or learn new skills. When a child is expected to be on their best behaviour for most activities on the time wheel, that sliver of free time had better truly be free.

Dr Levine writes: "We all know that some of our best work is done when no one is watching, when we feel free to be flexible and creative. Make sure your child has time to explore and create and learn without the pressure of constant scrutiny and evaluation."

Naturally there are children who love to have every hour of their day filled with stimulating activities. There are also children who love to have French fries and chocolate bars with every meal. Ultimately, parents have the final say as what to put into that sliver on the time wheel.

Dr Levine cites the example of two boys chasing each other around the playground during recess. "While this may look simply like a good way to burn off energy and calories - which is enough to recommend it - it is also a highly sophisticated social transaction. In order for the game to continue, each boy has to be willing to be both the chaser and the chased … This ability to play reciprocally is a powerful predictor of academic success, as is the ability to empathise and cooperate."

I remind myself that not every moment of a child's day needs to be educative, and try to let my children enjoy activities that are non-judgmental and not specifically focused on building skills. For my children, this means playing with sofa cushions and random household objects. It also means enjoying read-aloud time with books that are beautifully created but have with little educative value.

It's Useful to Have a Duck is a flip book by Isol, a children's picture book creator from Argentina and recipient of the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. After reading what the boy thinks about his duck, simply flip the book to enjoy mirrored illustrations from the duck's perspective.

Canadian author Sara O'Leary has created a charming series, The Henry Books, beginning with When You Were Small. It is filled with whimsical replies, artfully illustrated, to a young boy's request to his father, "Tell me about when I was small".

Supposing… by Alastair Reid is a seemingly straightforward book setting out a child-like supposition on every page: "Supposing I had a twin brother but we never told anyone and only went to school half the time each ..."

Reid wrote the text in 1960, and acclaimed illustrator Bob Gill recently added new illustrations to create a masterpiece that can spark the imagination of young readers when they come up with their own scenarios.

Ideally, they would be writing and illustrating their own scenarios during unstructured playtime.

Annie Ho is board chair of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong (bringmeabook.org.hk), a leading advocate for family literacy

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Make time for kids' free play

Dictionary Meanings for and by Children

Between the lines: learning the meanings depends on the book

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 28 January, 2014, 12:18pm

UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 January, 2014, 5:38pm

Annie Ho

"What's 'magical?'" my younger daughter asks. "Magical means muo shu," my elder daughter replies.

When my younger daughter wants to know what something is, her big sister simply gives an English or Chinese translation (depending on what language they're conversing in) rather than provide an actual definition.

My younger daughter, armed with only an English equivalent of a Chinese word or vice versa, somehow figures out their meanings.

I try to extract more from my elder daughter by asking: "And what does muo shu mean?" She replies: "It means magical." This is a drawback of growing up in a bilingual home.

I use the Kingfisher First Dictionary to show my children that there are generally accepted definitions of words.

For example, a button is defined as "a small round thing on clothes, that you push through a hole called a buttonhole to keep your clothes done up". The sun is "the big, bright star that we can see in the sky during the day".

Leading American writer Ruth Krauss cleverly compiled definitions as explained by children in A Hole is to Dig: A First Book of First Definitions, and even more cleverly invited Maurice Sendak to provide accompanying illustrations.

When my younger daughter asks what something is her sister gives the Cantonese translation

This pint-sized book was first published in 1952, and it's amusing to compare these definitions with the modern dictionary versions.

In A Hole is to Dig, "buttons are to keep people warm" and "the sun is to tell you what time it is every day".

Sendak's simple black-line drawings are recalled in Isol's illustrations for Doggy Slippers, another amusing look at what comes out of the mouths of babes.

Both are renowned illustrators: Sendak was the inaugural winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2003, and Isol (the pen name of Marisol Misenta) is the most recent recipient of this prestigious international children's literary award.

First published in Spanish as Pantuflas de Perrito, Doggy Slippers is a book of poems by Jorge Luján. He asked children around Latin America to write about their pets.

Some children described their pets, while others shared how they felt about their animals. Luján curated these writings into poems shaped by these children's thoughts and feelings, with quirky illustrations by fellow Argentinian Isol.

On my bookshelf are the only five books written or illustrated by Isol that have been translated into English. She has published 24 children's books and is also an accomplished recording artist of chamber music and pop songs. Isol has the uncanny ability to capture both the temperament and squiggly lined drawings of children.

At first glance, her illustrations seem unpolished, almost as if they were drawn by a six-year-old. Consequently, the drawings allow a child to grasp the artist's intent. They also give adults a glimpse of life through their childhood eyes.

My favourite poem from Doggy Slippers is the first in the book. It is accompanied by a cartoonish drawing of a pony-tailed, wide-eyed girl looking up towards the reader from a vast and sparse room.

It reads: "I want to buy/a toy poodle/a black/girl/puppy whose name is Olivia./Do you know where she lives?"

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Spread the words with real meaning