What can we do to promote investigation and exploration in each child?

Whether outside or inside, ignite your child's curiosity and investigation with explorative play. Like, little pioneers, they discover themselves and the world around them through exploration.

Define Exploratory

First, let's define exploratory. It means to search, discover, and learn more about something. Exploratory activities are a way to immerse your child into a variety of experiences and adventures.  As a result, they often include their entire bodies in the process.

Second, play is fun, spontaneous, and imaginative. It is where children are free to make their own choices and decisions. As a result, this free play is crucial to inviting your child to take risks and building their confidence.

Together, keeping the focus on play, exploratory play is about the process, not the end product. As one of the earliest forms of play, it involves the use of your child’s senses, such as taste, touch, and smell. Also, linked to your child’s development, it encourages them to ask questions. Furthermore, it gives them the chance to explore their surroundings and discover the how and why of their world.

Supporting Children’s Play

Exploration thrives in an environment that reinforces trial and error, curiosity, and questioning. Consequently, your role is to provide age-appropriate materials and exploration opportunities. Even more important, add the right amount of support to reduce your child’s frustration.

The materials you provide are essential to your child’s inquiry, interaction, and learning. For that reason, make available simple open-ended, exploratory toys like big building blocks to engage them. Invite messy, smelling, noisy, or yummy play that uses their senses. Inspire them to take things apart and put them back together.

Make it fun! Facilitate more exploration by playing alongside your child. Engage them in a variety of discovery experiences. For example, during block play, you can discuss shapes, sizes, and patterns. Get them outside, exploring nature. Encourage their observation of colors, textures, and scents. Similarly, ask questions like what, how, and why?

Your child, when supported to explore without restrictions, will continue to inquire and learn about their world.

Kids are just starting to make sense of the world. To help them successfully accomplish that, it’s great to allow them to interact with adults, fellow kids and the environment. This way they can better learn how their actions affect the objects and their surroundings.

The best approach for this is through play. It’s a holistic approach wherein kids experience cognitive, physical, emotional and social development. They start to explore and make sense of the world, develop their bones and muscles, gain self-confidence and learn how to collaborate with fellow children.

Let’s discuss how to encourage collaboration and active exploration through the play-based approach:

1. Give some freedom (but with active guidance)

Play is most effective if there’s some level of freedom. This way, kids will develop their curiosity and gain the courage to follow through. As a result, they will do explorations and investigations on their own. When they encounter challenges along the way, they might then come up with their own solutions, thereby enhancing their creativity.

However, there should be guidance along the way and some encouragement from the parents and educators. This is to keep the children safe and introduce them to possibly new paths when they explore.

2. Devote non negotiable schedules for playtime

Academics (gaining literacy and numeracy skills) may take much of a child’s active time. There still should always be a time for academic learning. However, playtime is equally important to the child’s holistic development.

That’s why many early learning centres now place special emphasis on playtime. Aside from facilitating holistic development, playtime is a lot more enjoyable than traditional classroom learning. Children will then be better encouraged to explore and make sense of the things happening around them.

3. Make the environment safe, secure and challenging

To promote play interactions, the environment should be aligned with how kids can best access the toys, learning materials and areas for learning.

That’s why many early learning centres pay attention to furniture, lighting, selection and placement of resources & the overall aesthetics of their facilities. For instance, highlighting certain play materials can capture more attention from the kids. In addition, removing hindrances and allowing easy access to toys and learning resources will better encourage exploration.

Encourage exploration through play

Researchers have found out that playtime has a huge role in children’s overall development and later successes in life. After all, it’s the time when kids learn more about the world through active interaction with objects, people and the environment.

Here at Star Academy Kids Early Learning Centre, we prioritise the children’s development while allowing them to enjoy their childhood. Fun plus learning is the best combination to preparing kids for formal schooling and the real world.

Contact us today if you want to learn more about our approach and facilities. You can also book a tour so you’ll know if our facility is right for your child.

How to encourage exploration and investigation through play?

How can I encourage my child to explore the environment?

Why is it important for children to investigate their world?

How can you as an educator encourage children to explore experiment and take appropriate risks in their learning?