The Balance Between Creative Play And Structured Activities

In the long standing debate between creative play and structured activity many of the arguments act as if it has to be one or the other. Many of these arguments fail to acknowledge that there is a necessary balance that must be found. Another important aspect of this debate that many people tend to forget about is that the balance between creative play and structured activities will be different for every child. The difficulty comes in trying to figure out this balance for each individual child and this difficulty is what leads to experts desperatelt trying to figure out which is more beneficial, creative play or structured activities.

Creative play is no doubt an incredibly important aspect of being a child. There are nearly endless benefits to having children play creatively, especially at a young age. In younger children, creative play is one of the best ways to facilitate learning because so many skills can be learned at once. Creative play helps develop a persons imagination, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and a general sense of how to express oneself. Another important aspect of creative play is interaction with other children. Many creative games or activities are done in groups, which helps the children develop social skills and creative problem solving
Children learn how to follow instruction and work towards a goal. Structured activity also helps children to practice dedication and commitment, two things that are vital for all people to have as adults. Another aspect of structured activity that can be extremely helpful for children is the sense of accomplishment one has after achieving a goal that they have been working towards for an extended period of time. Structured activity becomes more important as children get older and need to gain a better sense of how to function within society, which is yet another thing that structured activity can help people