Child-led play is a great way to learn, but sometimes you might need some ideas to get things started. When you arrange hire of a play package you will be sent an activity pack full of ideas for how to use the equipment to help your little people grow. These packs have been created in collaboration with Tre Burch (a teacher who is also qualified in Educational Psychology) looking specifically at how packages can be used to support development of thinking, communication, emotional and movement skills. As DaisyChain grows, links to further resources will also be sent out for you to access with more ideas.

Resources

DaisyChain packages have been carefully put together to encourage child-led play; novel toys capture interest, engage the senses and can be used in imaginative ways with plenty of opportunities for open ended play. Child-led play is where the adults follow the lead of the child on what to play with, how to play and how long to play with something for, rather than activities being "set up" to be used in a certain way. Child-led play often leads to improved learning opportunities, in particular in the four areas of development below:

Thinking 

Emotions 

Having positive feedback from adults and being "allowed" to play with things their way is great for building confidence, which often leads children to take next steps that adults might not have thought they were ready for. Child-led play also improves the social bond and trust between children and adults.

Children play for longer and with greater focus and purpose on activities they have chosen or "invented" themselves. They are naturally curious about the world, so will explore new things to their full potential, often in ways we would never have thought of. Learning is often connected in different ways, meaning a better memory for the new skills they have learned. 

Communication

Child-led play is reliant on communication, both the child's ability to communicate what they want to happen to the adult and their ability to react to what the adult is doing. Adults can easily encourage spoken language and add new vocabulary in child-led play, particularly when curiosity leads to asking questions or during open ended and imaginative play.

Movement

Just as growing confidence helps children show they can learn things we might not expect them to, child-led play enables them to take those physical risks that lead to developments in movement too. Using big equipment in ways that adults might not think of can also help develop areas like balance and hand-eye coordination.