Why Play Essays

Why Play Essays Why Play Essay Why Play Essay Why Playing Is Important For Children Name: Course: Date: Why Playing Is Important For Children The Definition of Play and Its Relationship to Healthy Development and Learning Child play can simply be defined as what a child naturally does when left alone. Playing helps in the development of children’s understanding capability, healthy physical growth and their communication with their peers. During play also, children discover their creativity and develop their capacity to imagine (Ginsburg 2007). Playing is also essential for children’s brain development during early childhood as it is how children first explore their surrounding. Essential life skills like problem solving, decision making and concentration are first noticed in children while playing. When children are left to play alone, they learn how to control their pace, how to make their own decisions and when to respond to other people. Sharing and negotiation are first learnt by children when they play. It is through playing with their parents that a child first realizes the important role parents play. It is through playing that children learn of simple crafts and discover their sexual orientation. The physical build up made when children play is also essential in maintaining good health. The experience children get in playing also fills them with joy and happiness. This is necessary for their emotional well-being. Children playing by themselves unmonitored by adults learn how to work in groups. Why Play Has Become Elusive In Education Settings In most schools, children are given less time for scheduled play while they are hurried to suit into adult-like roles. Play time has been reduced and playing has been structured for learning rather than enjoyment. Children’s play time in school also decreases as they advance their education with academics continually consuming most of their time. However, playing in school is crucial to children as it develops their social and emotional capabilities while they interact within the school environment. Playing in school has also been associated with enhancing children’s readiness to learn. Different Types of Play and the Different Benefits of Play Children engage in different types of play, as they get older. Unoccupied play is the first attempt by children at playing in the early months of infancy. Solitary play involves babies playing on their own usually from three to sixteen months. During onlooker play, children watch others play while they learn usually from one and a half years. From around age three, children engage in social play and interact with other children. In this play, children learn sharing and conversing. Motor-physical play occurs when children play games such as hide and seek offering them a chance to exercise therefore maintaining good health (Ginsburg 2007). In constructive and expressive play, children explore their creativity and learn how to communicate their feelings. In constructive and expressive play, material such as crayons and pencils, clay and water are used. In fantasy play children build their imagination (Bailey 2006). At this stage, they mention their dreams of the future and identify their potential careers. Cooperative play is done in groups with set group goals. At this stage, children start participating in team sports such as soccer, introducing them to rules and following them. As benefits of play, children develop their problem solving capabilities through puzzles and other games. They also acquire an understanding of measurements and texture through play. A vital benefit is that children start recognizing the essence of teamwork while engaging in group play.

Mastaba, the Original Pyramids

Mastaba, the Original Pyramids A mastaba is a large rectangular structure that was used as a type of tomb, often for royalty, in Ancient Egypt. Mastabas were relatively low (especially when compared to pyramids), rectangular, flat-roofed, roughly bench shaped burial structures that were created and utilized for the pre-Dynastic pharaohs or nobility of Ancient Egypt. They had distinct sloping sides and were typically made of mud bricks or stones. The mastabas themselves served as visible monuments for the prominent Egyptian nobility that they housed, although the actual burial chambers for the mummified corpses were underground and were not visible to the public from the outside of the structure. Step Pyramid Technically, mastabas preceded the original pyramid. In fact, pyramids developed directly from mastabas, as the first pyramid was actually a type of step pyramid, which was constructed by stacking one mastaba directly on top of a slightly larger one. This process was repeated several times in order to create the initial pyramid. The original step pyramid was designed by Imhotepin the third millennium BC. The sloping sides of traditional pyramids were adopted directly from mastabas, although the flat roof typical of mastabas was replaced by a pointed roof in pyramids. The common flat-sided, pointed pyramid also developed directly from the mastabas. Such pyramids were created by modifying the step pyramid by filling in the uneven sides of the pyramids with stones and lime in order to create the flat, even outward appearance. This eliminated the stair-like appearance of step pyramids. Thus, the progression of pyramids went from the mastabas to the step pyramids to the bent pyramids (which was an in-between form of the step pyramid and the triangular shaped pyramids), and then finally the triangle shaped pyramids, like those seen at Giza. Usage Eventually, during the Old Kingdom in Egypt, Egyptian royalty such as kings stopped being buried in mastabas, and began being buried in more modern, and more aesthetically pleasing, pyramids. Egyptians of non-royal background continued to be buried in mastabas. From the Encyclopedia Britannica: â€Å"Old Kingdom mastabas were used chiefly for non-royal burials. In nonroyal tombs, a chapel was provided that included a formal tablet or stela on which the deceased was shown seated at a table of offerings. The earliest examples are simple and architecturally undemanding; later a suitable room, the tomb-chapel, was provided for the stela (now incorporated in a false door) in the tomb superstructure. Storage chambers were stocked with food and equipment, and walls were often decorated with scenes showing the deceased’s expected daily activities. What had earlier been a niche on the side grew into a chapel with an offering table and a false door through which the spirit of the deceased could leave and enter the burial chamber.†