Teams who play together tend to stick together.
Perhaps your child wants to be an astronaut or a data analyst or in fact any job that we don’t know about yet as it doesn’t exist. None of us can be totally certain about what tomorrow looks like. The question is: how do we ensure that our children are ready for a world where machines are already replacing jobs?We all want our children to have the essential skills they need to move forward with confidence. We want them to have the right skills to enable them to thrive no matter what the future holds.
Play is the way that children learn to be flexible and identify their strengths. Play isn’t about facts and figures. Instead, it’s about problem solving, testing our new ideas and collaborating to find better solutions.
There are the 5 skills that have been identified as the Super Skills by the LEGO Foundation:
- Physical skills – these include running, jumping or learning a new sport. Physical play is so important because it unleashes endorphins which in turn boost children’s mood. Physical skills include fine motor skills which are vital to be able to grasp objects and manipulate them. This includes making models and using bricks in different ways.
- Social Skills – these include when children play games together and work on solving problems in groups. This form of collaboration helps them to build empathy and get along better with friends and family. It’s also a way of improving their mental health and wellbeing.
- Emotional Skills – these include the ability to practice dealing with situations that might be uncertain or where the outcome isn’t predictable. They learn to cope with losing and deal with their frustration when things don’t go according to plan. They begin to build resilience when the end result isn’t as they had wanted.
- Cognitive skills – these include the ability to use complex reasoning skills, memory and concentration. This level of flexibility is important when we aren’t sure about what the future holds and where it’s going to be more important than ever to be able to adapt to the challenges that life brings.
- Creative Skills – these include the ability to perform, write, compose and tell stories. It’s an important way in which we make connections, try things out and also make sense of abstract ideas. Business leaders in fact constantly tell us that it’s a key skill they look for in their team members.
Even a simple game like ‘hide and seek’ gives children so many skills: they have to logically work out where others are hiding; they need to reason and find a place where they can hide; they run around looking for others which is a physical skill and they have to build an awareness of their surroundings. They also have to be a bit strategic in their hiding and also have to get on with others in the group.
The more your child plays, the more of these skills are used on a consistent basis. These are the skills for the future!
Are you ready to play?
Your Yay4Play activity kit is ideal for developing these skills. Some of the activities even combine several of these skills all at once!