Should we hurry our infants?

Much of my interest in games and learning came from my youth playing games as seeing that there were potentially a really effective tool to deliver content. Though at the time I was playing those games, I wasn’t thinking about teaching and learning. I only saw how playing games about an age or time helped me understand that age or time a little bit better and at times it helped out in class as well. So now, with a new driver in my life, I’m looking at games again, but not as anything more complex than the act of doing the game – nee playing.

Coming back from the break that I took when my daughter was born, Ideas had a set of podcasts waiting on babies. This included “The Hurried Infant“. Even before listening to the two episodes, I was thinking about just how I might do best by her in terms of giving her all the tools that I could to succeed at being a complete person. Two elements of being rounded for me included the ability to take intelligent risks and solve problems. These are two principle elements of games, but they are also very important to play. Certainly through history, there have been many brilliant people who have done great things (with or without being recognized) and each of their parents must have done some thing to help them along. Not knowing what that might be, I can only assume that a common thread would be how they played or were allowed to play.

Between what Sir Ken Robinson has done on creativity and numerous resources commenting on the value of play, I think I might be on to something. For all the technology that people might think that I will use with my daughter, I think the most important thing will turn out to be play – with and without technology. I am certainly not buying into the Mozart theory and the idea that enrichment is best idea.

If I can tell stories in addition to reading, pretend and dance as well as watch a screen and build and stack as well as read, I think I’ll be giving my daughter a pretty good start. I certainly hope I don’t raise her to be one of those kids who is afraid to raise their hand because the might not know the right answer.