Findings

As a Froebel Flagship setting myself and practitioners have an understanding around Froebel’s Principles, Play Pedagogy and other relevant documentation including Realising the Ambition, which all highlight the use of natural open-ended resources.

On reflection of the questionnaires that were completed by practitioners, it indicated that most practitioners had knowledge about Heuristic Play and were eager to implement it with the children as they had good understanding of the positive aspects it has the on children. The responses also highlighted the rising concerns regarding safety of children, e.g. objects being a choking hazard, how to store the play materials, time factors, and lack of guidance/training on this. Therefore, it’s important that for the children to fully benefit from this play experience, practitioners need the opportunity to experience this first-hand and have adequate training to help facilitate Heuristic Play in the hope that this will boost their confidence.

Introducing Heuristic Play to the children.

I observed the children just before getting ready for lunch and it was then that I decided to introduce my Heuristic Play objects for the first time. As I brought the box into the playroom the children’s interests were peaked and they were curious to find out what I had .I was surprised to observe that it was mostly boys that were first to approach the Heuristic play box. I couldn’t find anything to suggest the reason for this therefore I continued to encourage both boys and girls to participate.

As the children sat down there were lots of grabbing at the objects followed by being, distracted by the noise and the everyday going’s on in the playroom. It wasn’t really working the way I had envisioned, although a few children were keen to explore, and one child made a picnic out of bits of material and corks developing their creative thinking and language skills. During this time I found myself having to leave the play to collect the resources that a few children had transported elsewhere within the setting.

With discussions with my lead practitioner it was suggested I could  use another room away from the main playroom, a quieter space with limited distractions . The following day I invited the children to come with me this time. It was before going home, 5 children chose to come 4 boys and 1 girl. Only 2 out of the 5 children had parental permission for video/photographs to be taken, which limited the evidence I could produce. I led the children into the quiet space where the objects were in the box on the floor. I asked the children to sit on the carpet where this time they responded and waited for me to provide the materials. It was such a contrast from the previous interactions, the children were more focused and engaged, showing real interest in the play materials. During the observations I could see the children’s unique learning styles, the ones who were at the exploration stage , different schemas , as well as the children who were developing their imaginative play.

This wasn’t always the case during the process, as I repeated the play another day the group of children participating were not as involved or engaged. This got me thinking what had happened to have such different results and how do I reflect on this.

Conclusion

I learned that to implement this experience with the children to gain the biggest impact I have to choose the time of day carefully and start off with a smaller group of children in a quiet area away from the main playroom. Preparing the children beforehand so it can be explained what is going to happen. Adding more objects of different shape sizes, textures.

Practitioner training is a factor which will need to be considered in order to sustain the development of Heuristic Play across the ELC. I will organise training sessions to  provide practitioners with the knowledge they need so they can carry this out and have the confidence to facilitate their own Heuristic Play groups with children and share their knowledge with others. I hope to facilitate on-line sessions for family engagement taking into consideration family circumstances who may not have time to come to the setting or would feel more comfortable using that platform .To sustain this project I would like to collaborate with other settings/practitioners who are implementing Heuristic Play to share ideas, possible workshops, create information leaflets on Heuristic Play which can be used as a learning tool for families and practitioners.

I am optimistic that once all the factors are in place then Heuristic Play will be a core experience for all our children.