In the early years of your child’s life, you won’t see them learning through formalised learning. They aren’t sitting at desks, completing worksheets and participating in basic facts recall. They learn through watching the people around them and by exploring their environments. In the later stages of life, they will still be learning through observation with formalised learning as an added bonus! When learning is contextualised, it means that children can use their knowledge in different ways and in different settings. For example, your child who loves transport knows that diggers dig dirt because they have seen it on the TV and/or in person. But now they are contextualising this learning by bringing digging diggers into their play. This can then be extended as the child uses the digger to dig different materials and brings in another mode of transport (like a dump truck) to take the materials away and build a real-life construction scenario.
Older children might contextualise their formalised learning by using math, spelling or writing in their play. Have you seen your child write lists in their play before? That is them contextualising their learning. Have your seen your child role-play as a singer and during their imaginative play, they get out a piece of paper and write a song? Again, that is evidence of contextualised learning.
So what’s so great about this and why do we keep harping on about it? Because it shows your child is learning through play! They are understanding the world around them and showing you exactly what they know. It’s magical! It just shows that play is not only beneficial for children but vital.
