Most children fail to achieve greater goals through education, just because the present education system does not interest them. They feel education as a burden. St Joseph’s Convent School makes education interesting by incorporating play and fun activities in education.
In the initial phase and primary section we use a lot of Montessori methods and focus on encouraging children to learn through “meaningful play.”
Meaningful play” has five characteristics:
- Gives the child a choice about what he or she wants to do
- Feels fun and enjoyable for the child
- Evolves spontaneously, rather than giving kids a script to follow
- Is driven by intrinsic motivation about what the child wants to do
- Creates a risk-free environment where kids can experiment and try new ideas.
In meaningful play, children are active participants. For example, instead of passively taking in a lesson, children take on roles alongside their peers and respond to the other children according to the rules of play that they’ve created.
While “rules” may seem counterintuitive to the idea of free, voluntary play, a system of mental rules is actually one of the other key features of play. Children may state these explicitly, form them collaboratively or follow a selected leader, or have an inherent sense of what governs the terms of their playful engagement. This active, pleasurable negotiation of rules and symbols can offer a number of learning benefits.