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Tag: play based learning

Rest Is Not Wasted Time: Why Children Learn Better When They Slow Down

Written by Kasie Losurdo on . Posted in Uncategorized.

As the end of the year approaches, many children show greater sensitivity, bigger emotions, and signs of fatigue. This pattern is completely normal. Term four brings accumulated tiredness, disrupted routines, and an increase in events and transitions. Young children feel every part of this.

One of the most supportive things we can offer children at this time of year is something modern life often overlooks: Rest, stillness and unstructured time to simply breathe.

In early childhood, rest is not separate from learning. Because children need to learn to rest.

Children Today Are Living in an Overstimulated World

Modern childhood is filled with activity. Many families juggle work commitments, school hours, after-school care, sports, errands, social events, and busy household routines. Although well-intentioned, this pace creates a level of stimulation that young nervous systems struggle to process.

What is overstimulation?

Overstimulation occurs when children receive more sensory, emotional, or cognitive input than their developing systems can manage.

It can be triggered by:

  • noise
  • bright environments
  • large groups
  • busy schedules
  • multiple transitions
  • back-to-back activities
  • long hours at child care
  • screens

How overstimulation shows up

Overstimulated children may become:

  • irritable, sensitive, or teary
  • clingy or unable to separate
  • “wild,” overly excitable, or impulsive
  • easily frustrated or overwhelmed
  • resistant to simple requests
  • disinterested, bored, or scattered
  • suddenly tired or flat

For older children, it may look like clumsiness, difficulty cooperating, fussiness around food, or asking for more help than usual.

These responses are not misbehaviour — they are signs of overload.

Children need stimulation to learn, but they also need spacious, predictable quiet in order to integrate that learning and regulate themselves.

A Look Back: When Rest Was Part of the Rhythm of Childhood

For decades, rest time was a consistent, expected part of a young child’s day. Even in Kindergarten children had a midday nap. This was understood as a developmental need.

As academic pressure and “readiness” expectations increased, rest began to disappear and busy schedules took its place. Today, many children move from early childhood education and school to after-school activities with little to no white space in between.

There is now have strong evidence showing the cost of this constant busyness.

What the Research Tells Us

🧠 1. Rest consolidates learning

Children retain more information after rest. The brain uses quiet moments to strengthen memory pathways and organise new knowledge.

🧘 2. Rest regulates the nervous system

Predictable periods of calm activate the parasympathetic system — the body’s “rest and restore” mode. This lowers stress, improves behaviour, and supports emotional balance.

🎨 3. Rest creates space for creativity and imagination

Many of the richest forms of play arise from stillness and unstructured time. Children think, experiment, problem-solve, and imagine more freely when stimulation decreases.

😴 4. Fatigue often appears as behaviour

Emotional outbursts, defiance, clinginess, and hyperactivity often come from exhaustion, not intentional misbehaviour. Rest resets the system.

Boredom Is Not a Problem — It’s Essential

Children often express overstimulation or tiredness through the words, “I’m bored.”
However, boredom is not something to fix or fill. From a developmental perspective, boredom is incredibly valuable.

Why boredom matters:

  • It slows the nervous system
  • It fosters imagination
  • It encourages self-directed play
  • It builds resilience and flexible thinking
  • It strengthens a child’s ability to initiate ideas
  • It supports problem-solving using what is available
  • It helps children learn to regulate themselves independently

When children move through boredom into play, they are not wasting time —
they are developing essential life skills.

A childhood with moments of boredom is a childhood with room to grow.

How Families Can Support Children in These Final Weeks

Small, intentional adjustments make a big difference:

  • Prioritise early, consistent bedtimes
  • Reduce after-school and weekend overload
  • Allow unstructured, device-free play
  • Keep evenings calm where possible
  • Limit back-to-back activities
  • Provide quiet, predictable routines
  • Create gentle home environments with low noise and soft lighting
  • Protect space for “doing nothing”

A balanced day — one that has both stimulation and stillness — supports emotional wellbeing, behaviour, learning, and resilience.

A Healthy Childhood Has Rhythm, Not Rush

Children grow through exploration and activity, but they develop in the quiet moments between them. Rest helps them integrate their experiences, regulate their emotions, and return to a centred, secure state.

As we move toward the end of the year, it is helpful to remember, children don’t grow by being busy all the time. They grow in the stillness too.

“Schools produce anxiety and depression, and then they hire therapists to reduce it.” – Peter Gray

Written by Kasie Losurdo on . Posted in Uncategorized.

In a world where academic expectations are creeping earlier and earlier into childhood, it’s important to remember that children’s most powerful learning tool is not a worksheet, a whiteboard, or a tablet — it’s play.

Maria Montessori famously described play as “the work of the child”. She saw it not as a break from learning, but as the very means by which children learn. Through play, children explore, imagine, experiment, and make sense of their world. It’s how they develop the foundations for problem-solving, creativity, and resilience — qualities they will carry for life.

Rudolf Steiner also championed the importance of a rich, imaginative childhood. In his philosophy, play is essential for nurturing not only intellectual growth but also emotional well-being and social skills. When children are given the time, space, and trust to play, they develop the curiosity and confidence that underpin all later learning.

Lev Vygotsky, a pioneering developmental psychologist, emphasised that learning is deeply social. His concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) explains how children learn best when they are supported — or “scaffolded” — just beyond their current abilities. Importantly, Vygotsky found that this scaffolding often works best through collaboration with peers. When children play together, they exchange ideas, negotiate roles, solve problems, and challenge each other’s thinking in ways that adult-led instruction can’t always replicate.

Urie Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory also reinforces why play in rich, supportive environments matters. Bronfenbrenner explained that a child’s development is shaped by multiple layers of influence — from their immediate relationships to their broader community and culture. High-quality early childhood settings create an interconnected environment where relationships, play experiences, and community engagement all work together to nurture a child’s growth.

In Australia, our Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) recognises play as the primary context for learning in early childhood. It is not an optional extra; it is the core of quality early education. The EYLF highlights that play is a natural and essential way for children to explore, discover, and learn about the world around them, fostering physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development.

Through block building, sand play, storytelling, painting, and imaginative role-play, children are developing the very skills they will later use for literacy and numeracy. Play-based experiences build fine motor skills for writing, spatial reasoning for mathematics, and narrative thinking for reading comprehension.

But not all play experiences are equal. Children benefit most when they engage in high-quality play-based learning in high-quality early childhood services. These settings provide:

  • Skilled Educator Support – Educators intentionally extend children’s play by asking thought-provoking questions, introducing new vocabulary, and providing materials that spark deeper exploration.
  • Rich, Varied Environments – Well-designed learning spaces indoors and outdoors encourage children to test ideas, solve problems, and collaborate with peers.
  • Opportunities for Sustained Play – Children are given the time they need to become deeply absorbed in play, which supports concentration, persistence, and creativity.
  • Social and Emotional Growth – Play in a group setting develops empathy, cooperation, conflict resolution skills, and the ability to read social cues — essential foundations for school and life.
  • Real-World Understanding – Play connects learning to real experiences. Whether it’s running a pretend café, building a bridge from blocks, or caring for a garden, children gain an understanding of how the world works.

High-quality play-based learning gives children a strong foundation for future academic success. They don’t just memorise facts — they learn how to learn. They build resilience when things don’t work out, creativity when they need to think differently, and confidence when they succeed through their own efforts.

If children do not grasp these foundations through hands-on, meaningful play, they will find it far more challenging to keep up once formal schooling begins. Trying to make sense of abstract concepts written on a smart board is almost impossible without having first built the basic understandings in real, concrete ways.

When we protect and prioritise play, we are not taking time away from learning — we are giving children the very tools they need to thrive at school and in life. Early childhood services are not mini‑schools, nor should they be. They are unique environments where curiosity, creativity, and connection flourish through play. If we strip away that play in favour of early formal instruction, we risk creating the same pressures and anxieties that Peter Gray warns about in schools. High‑quality early childhood education should be a joyful, nurturing space where children learn naturally, at their own pace, through rich, meaningful play — not a place where the pressures of schooling begin too soon.