Christmas time past, we believe that it is necessary to talk about an inner experience, something we perceive every year, based on the advertising bombardment that mainly spearheads the toy sector. So, after the binge of emotions and surprises, by young and old, We want to make the following reflection after the visit of the Magi: What does a child experience with a certain toy?, What senses does it stimulate and how? Does fantasy give enough flight?
When a child plays before us we are witnessing the internal processes that he lives on his way to locate himself in the world, what should make our gaze fill with respect when we glimpse in the child the man of the future who lives and acts in him. That is how important the game is and that is how important are the means that we offer to facilitate your connection with yourself and with the world around you..
The child develops first as an experimenting being and then, as being that understands, to then act in a planned and conscious way. Therefore, respecting this evolution, during the first seven years where the child is all will, the type of games and toys that are offered must allow the child to be freely in the constant make meaningful and not direct it towards any type of intellectual reasoning. In this stage, the adult plays a fundamental role since he is the most important figure for children. They feel great admiration for him. From his hand they experience life at home, on the street, in the shops, in dealing with other people, etc. All these experiences drive children towards this activity that we call play through the forces of imitation, that are your main resource for learning. So, providing elements that allow them to recreate these situations will be very convenient, bearing in mind that the adult must always be present accompanying the processes (games) of children but it is not their role to intervene as an equal, but always from his adult position. With our attitude and behavior we trace a path for them to follow.
Channeling and allowing an adequate will to develop in the child becomes, adult, in the ability to be willing and active for work and to integrate into social life properly.
In Waldorf Education we know that the young child is a sensory organism all of him and therefore accepts everything that comes to him from the outside world through his senses without consciousness, still in the making, can act as a filter so that everything perceived is installed in the depths of your being, remaining fixed as an experience-concept for your entire life. Whether the items they play with are made from natural materials or are raw nature resources (stones, screens, bark, log sections, etc), the record of the information contained in these "toys" will be much more varied, rich in nuances and true that if it is in contact with plastic, from dead matter and uniform in terms of experiences.
There is a fundamental maxim regarding the number of toys: less is more! A little saturated space is more likely to be filled with the creativity of a child and the block of wood that is now a ship, in five minutes it can magically transform into a griddle or birthday cake. Instead, if it is surrounded by a multitude of objects defined and finished in terms of shapes, it will soon finish doing with them what the object lends itself to do, preface to the dreaded phrase:I'm getting bored! What's more, clutter generated by quantity will lead, earlier than later, to a chaotic movement where the child is lost in the game that, in many of the cases, invites a lack of respect and care for toys.
If there is a star toy, for boys and girls, that is Rag doll, since it is the image of man and leads the child in his relationship with the human; When the doll is not completely finished, the child can apply with his imagination the emotional situations that he needs to capture outside or that the moment requires: can cry or laugh, sleep or be awake; these forces must constantly develop or else they atrophy. A finished doll girls like very much, no doubt,(especially from the 6 years), but they offer little soul food and no benefit to the senses; the rigidity itself as they are made is already an offense for the child who is pure plasticity. If the wrist makes sounds, or pee so real, the girl doesn't have much to do anymore. Instead, If the doll is made by hand, it becomes an irreplaceable toy as individual as the child himself and as the bond that is generated between the two.
If the child has the possibility to unleash his imagination, if they have the means at their disposal to carry out those internal imaginary experiences and shape them in the game without conditioning by the adult, no external images determined, its organic formation will be flexible and not rigid, breathing will be fluid and therefore will be a source of health for the future, the brain receives more oxygen and will develop properly. Playing well is growing well. Growing well is living better.