Educating the Whole Child Through Play
Play and learning are inextricably intertwined.
“The function of play is to build pro-social brains, social brains that know how to interact with others in positive ways.”
Confidence is really important to children. When a child feels safe and confident, they feel that they can try new things. So this confidence will allow them to start their next learning adventure. This is the way in which children are learning through play and how play helps the brain to grow.
As scientific evidence continues mounting to show play is the best way for children to learn and thrive, we are proud of our model and the whole-child learning that takes place at Brightworks.
From a child’s earliest days, play is how they relate to the world, and to others. When children have plenty of opportunities to learn playfully, they do what they do best: pursue their natural curiosity. And, as they do, they build skills and aptitudes they’ll keep for life.
At Brightworks, learning is driven by children’s interests and cultivated by educators. Informed by neuroscience, we’ve reinvented education to put creative play at the heart of the school curriculum. When they play, children test, learn, explore, and ask questions, all the while building creative skills.
The really cool thing is that when your child experiences pleasure they become driven to repeat the activity.
This makes a lot of sense really if something feels good and rewards us, then we do it over and over again to try to get more good feelings and rewards. With more repetition, the child will achieve mastery of the skills used during play, a sense of accomplishment and boosted self-confidence.
The key attributes of a successful adult in the global world are built when children are young. At Brightworks, children are building their toolkit of skills through play that includes:
collaboration (teamwork, social competence),
content (e.g., reading, math, science, history),
communication (oral and written),
creative innovation,
and confidence (taking risks and learning from failure).
Students solve problems, think strategically, relate to others, and manage life’s ups and downs. Ultimately they learn how to learn, how to collaborate, and how to innovate…even when they have limited resources.