Play is a cornerstone of childhood. Beyond providing entertainment and enjoyment for children, play is also vital for learning and development. Children develop cognitively, socially, emotionally, and physically through play and build essential life skills. While there is no question about the value of play, different approaches to early education define and emphasize play in their own way. 

During the first plane of development (from birth to six years) children rely on concrete, hands-on encounters with their environment to grow and develop. This is because young children, especially those six and younger, have difficulty recognizing the difference between fantasy and reality. The imaginary and the real are intertwined. Children at this age haven’t developed a broad understanding of how the world works and cannot think abstractly. This is why Montessori emphasizes reality-based play in the early years.

In the Montessori framework, play consists of active, meaningful, and self-directed activities that enable children to make discoveries about the real world. Every purposeful activity children engage in is a form of play. One misunderstanding about Montessori is that it is all work and no play. However, the reality of the Montessori approach is that play is the child’s work. Montessori gives children a solid foundation in real-world experiences from a young age to prepare them for using their imagination as they grow older. Think about a plane taking off on a runway–it spends a great deal of time on the ground before soaring into the air. Now envision a child’s intellect in this same way. Over time, frequent interactions with real-world experiences ground a child in reality, which gives them the momentum necessary to soar into abstract thinking. Once a child has a deep understanding of their environment and the world around them, they can take off on explorations of fantasy and abstract ideas. Creativity is born from a foundation of understanding. 

Children need to have play experiences that are rooted in reality to understand the world around them. A benefit of reality-based learning is that children understand their role in the world, develop independence and competence, and master practical life skills. This is especially true in the Montessori classroom, where work is play, and can also be extended into the home. Practical life activities are a great way to integrate Montessori play into everyday experiences at home. Try including children in cooking through simple food prep, cleaning with child-sized tools, and self-care like brushing hair and teeth and dressing themselves. These real-world activities not only develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills but also build a child’s self-confidence and sense of belonging through collaboration with adults to care for the environment. While these hands-on activities may sound like work to adults, to children they are a delightful and play-based way of developing into independent, confident, and capable humans who are prepared for life.