"Children love to spin around until they're too dizzy to stand up, laugh with others about nothing in particular, mumble nonsense words in a tumultuous conversation, put their pants on their heads or their jackets on their legs, and act out with their friends. they revel in its power to turn the world upside down, playfully confident that it can restore it." -Flight: Alberta's Early Learning and Care Framework You've probably never heard of "dizzy play." I certainly hadn't until I read the full Alberta manifesto on early learning.
Dizzy Play is essentially the epitome of childhood. It's messy, noisy, and expressive. Flight defines motion sickness as "a relatively new term used to describe the important learning and development that occurs for children when they create disorder and rearrangement within play experiences. Elements of motion sickness are present in experiences such as roughhousing and tumbling, full-body play. exploration, and humor and language play."
This type of play is stimulating for children, and also for adults when given the opportunity. However, as caregivers and educators in a child's life, it can be difficult to tolerate.
Allowing children the experience of being "in charge" of their world for a moment, creating chaos and then ordering it their way, releasing energy, causing change, laughing uncontrollably, all require a release on the part of the adult. Not only does play provide a healthy release for children both emotionally and physically, but it also brings great joy in life.
At Mount View, we challenge our educators to allow fast-paced play at school.It can be noisy and messy, but so is childhood and we want our students to live their childhood to the fullest.
Here are some flight framework questions to process your own views on dizzy play as a parent:
- "How do you value and respond to physical noises in dizzy play?
- What is your comfort level and how does this affect the trade-offs you make for this type of play? downhill, dancing barefoot, or singing at the top of their lungs.”
Special thanks to the people of Alberta who are challenging educators and parents around the world to rethink the early years!