A small child constantly needs activity and does not get tired of it, but of its monotony ...
The game for a preschool child is the leading and most natural form of activity, an important condition for the full mental, moral, aesthetic, physical development, its socialization in society.
Children's games in general - this is the only natural work of the child, for which he undertakes without coercion and external influence. At the same time, they are an excellent way of instilling practically all the qualities of character that we value in people, but which we often try to instill in verbal, i.e. verbal, methods, or simple teaching, training, or exercise.
By playing, the child learns to live. During the game he masters quite easily, understands the essence and remembers its basic rules. In the future, such skills will be useful to him, in particular when studying at school. Moreover, during the game, depending on its course, the child must assess the situation and make decisions independently; learns the need for cooperation, learns to respect the rights of another participant in the game, learns to restrain himself and his negative emotions; in return expresses goodwill and sincerity.
No other activity is able to give a child of preschool age so many positive emotions that he needs so much for a healthy mental and physical development. Games are no less useful at an older age, but provided that their social content is deepened.
Even the combination of various types of activity does not cause a sharp change in dynamic stereotypes, does not upset the child’s mental balance, but becomes a consistent fragment of his life, which takes place directly.
The main thing is to prevent (especially under the age of 3 years) a sharp, rapid transition from one type of activity to another, which has no logical connection with the previous one, especially if it is little known or completely unknown to the child. This causes protest, reluctance, even a painful fear of the new that is offered. This is why children react painfully to being distracted from a toy or game that completely captures them.
Peremptorily intervening in the world of children's play, adults traumatize and destroy the world of fantasies, traumatize the psyche of a child, deform his imagination, or, finally, give false patterns of behavior with feelings of others and attitude to the results of their work. Therefore, it is so important to be considerate with children engaged in games and toys. Do not rush to stop them, even if you have your own plans - on the contrary, take the time to ask what game your child is passionate about and what is its meaning. Unobtrusively join - play along, and you will feel the special appreciation of the child, his interest in you.
Thanks to the game situation, you can teach your child something cognitive and useful. According to observations, preschoolers are very fond of playing games such as "Daughters - Mothers", "Home", "Away" and others. Parents can always direct their stories to the assimilation of certain rules of life in the family, fulfillment of duties and adherence to ethics of behavior and relationships.
Guided by the popular wisdom that “children are easier to raise than re-educate” and “it is necessary to start raising when the child is still across the bed,” you should always take care of what, how and with whom your child does. And in order to direct him to positive thoughts and good deeds, it is advisable to pay more attention to games of moral content: they can be both mobile, say, during the day, and quite calm - before going to bed.
Games such as “Magic Word” have a positive educational effect (when each request and action must be accompanied by proper selection and use of polite, pleasant words); “Shop of one purchase” (when a child mentally gets into a situation of choice, in which he has the right to choose only one from a large offer of various possible desires).
By the way, a similar situation "in the store" can be used to ensure that children are guided by the possibilities of the family budget, in the usefulness or excess of certain things; learned to make informed choices, for which they themselves will have to answer in case of failure); “Good - bad” (when the essence of good and bad is revealed to a child in a game situation, and he develops a system of ideas about the cause-effect relationships of various actions, actions and behavior in general) and others.
Such games will always contribute to the formation of the child’s ideas about politeness, about the priority of desires and needs, about the possibility of satisfying them and developing and enriching his language, even if you do not clearly set a similar goal of education.
