I was reading the book above Literacy Learning in the Early Years and the chapter called “Play and Literacy Learning” gave very valuable insight on how to include literacy into your children’s play time.

Here is an excerpt from that chapter:

…instead of simply leaving children to play as they wish, adults intervene in subtle or explicit ways to influence more directly the play within the area. This intervention can be relatively accidental, or it can be carefully planned. The relatively accidental and spontaneous intervention is mostly a case of adults being sensitive to the possibilities that exist when things just happen.

Let me explain further so the above exerpt makes more sense.
You know how children love to role play? I’m sure you’ve caught your children pretending to be doctors, teachers, chefs etc…. Well, the book suggests that as parents/teachers, we don’t just leave them alone to play. Once in a while we should join in and suggests possible scenarios or guide them as to how the real world works. In the real world, we are surrounded by literacy e.g. signs, newsprints, paperwork.

The example given in the book is on a child pretending to have a restaurant. The teacher asks if animals are allowed in the restaurant and the child says no. The teacher then asks what happens if someone brings a dog? The child says that he will tell the person it’s not allowed and he might even call the police. The teacher then suggests a “No Dogs Allowed” sign.

Now here is how I implemented this idea into my children’s play. My DD was playing doctor-doctor and these were some of my suggestions:

  • What’s the name of your clinic? How about a sign on the door so people will know this is a clinic and who is the doctor?
  • The clinic usually keeps records of the patients. Create a ‘medical card’ for patients to record down their name, address, telephone number and for the doctor to write notes at the back.
  • Write prescription
  • Health posters to decorate the clinic
  • Is smoking allowed? How about a no-smoking sign?
  • Maybe also a sign to tell people what time the clinic is open?

Take note that it is not necessary for the child to know how to write yet. It is okay for the child to make scribbles on a piece of paper while pretending to write a letter, take down a customer’s order, making an evaluation etc…. The idea is to create awareness about literacy. As the book puts it:

Literacy is the means to an end rather than the end in its own right. Thus, thinking in terms of events means that the literacy will not be construed by the children as an exercise, but as something arising out of the theme of the play.”

In other words, literacy has a purpose. It’s used to accomplish something. For example, while playing ‘restaurant’, a menu is created so customers will know what to order. Or when we play ’shopping’, a shopping list is created so we don’t forget what to buy. When we incorporate literacy into our children’s play, they won’t see it as ‘an exercise’ but rather just part of playing.

Implementing this kind of ‘education’ has also made me more aware that I need to point out literacy to my children. For example, the next time we visit a restaurant, I should bring their attention to what the menu looks like e.g. the names of the food, price, pictures, the layout/format etc…. Also planning to bring home forms that people fill out e.g. bank deposit slips, contest forms etc….

So the next time your children start playing, see if you can sneak in some literacy.