Work as Play

It's been said frequently that play is a child's work, and it's so true.  I think, though, that it can be reversed, too.  Work is also a child's play. When the kids we see are engaged in a job that clearly benefits those around them, and especially when they are working as a team, they love it!  It's fun and stimulating and rewarding. They are contributing to their environment, which is a key component of the Reggio philosophy.  They are also getting a message that the adults around them trust them to make a real contribution.

Now that we're starting to be outside more, we have some real jobs for the kids to work on.  We've been moving our compost pile from one corner of the yard to a new bin by the garden.  This involves breaking up the compost with real hoes, shoveling it with real shovels into real wheelbarrows, pushing it across the yard, and emptying it into the bin.  Both in loading and unloading the compost, there were some who took on the job of counting (and catching) worms.

A couple of the kids said they were "partners" in their work, and called themselves the compost superheroes.  A few kids branched off into other work.  One, who needs the stimulation of heavy work, loaded bricks into a wheelbarrow, and transported them over to a new pile, another served as project manager, saying, "Yes, okay, now A- , you take them from there, and stack them in piles. . . " The third  took the directions and happily followed them.  I heard one kid say, "It's a good thing we have real boots like real farmers who do real work." Another noticed how the work was likely to make us hungry for lunch and tired for nap.  She then pointed out that the worms who are working for us in the compost must be hungry and tired, too, and that they are probably getting ready to take naps in their homes.

When kids are left to play freely, they find these roles on their own.  They feel the trust we are giving them, and that experience makes them more likely to give each other trust.  It's a wonderful thing to witness.