I love to watch my children play. A lot of the time, I don’t get on the ground and play with them. There is value in independent play, and there’s value in observing our children’s play. Children demonstrate natural play schemas (or schemata, to get technical!) through the stuff they find in nature. Schemas of play follow a child’s developmental stages. Young children, who learn through play, demonstrate different schemas or urges, through their play.

These schemas were identified by Jean Piaget, a psychologist who is often noted for his discoveries of child development. Some people, especially those who truly believe that a child is capable of learning without being spoon-fed ideas, think that Piaget underestimated the thinking abilities of young children. But, I think there is still value in understanding how our children learn through play. Play is so important to their learning, and when we can identify what they’re doing as valuable and as building blocks for future skills, we feel more comfortable with a play-based, quiet growing time in the early years.

Schemas of Play

Sometimes, my little ones have different ways to play that leave me scratching my head. Miss H asked for Washi tape for Christmas, and it basically has ended up in layers all over my house. Instead of wondering why she’s wasting her tape, I can recognize it as a brain-building play schema. For this post, I wanted to focus on what these schemas would look like outdoors, since that’s where the bulk of the Charlotte Mason early years are spent! When it comes to outdoor play, I try make sure they have access to a variety of different settings, from travelling to nearby beaches, walking through forests, and even simply playing in our own back yard.

Related: Nature Study Must-Haves from Amazon

Enclosure/Container

This is a play schema where children place things inside of larger things. They might even enclose themselves in a big box or fort.

Nature Play Examples:

• E has a little red tricycle with a storage container on the back. He just LOVES to cruise around on it and find treasures for the storage container. This quickly gets filled with leaves, sticks, and rocks.
• Playing in a hollowed out tree or outdoor fort.
• Filling up a bucket with rocks, water, or sand.
• Putting bugs in a jar or insect viewer.
• Building a snow fort.

Position

Organizing things into a specific order is the schema of position. Maybe your child will sort the different things they found in nature. While using this schema, a child is laying the foundation for future mathematical and spatial skills.

Nature Play Examples

• We have rock landscaping in our yard. Miss H went through a phase where she loved to sort the rocks that she found. The reddish rocks went into one pile, while the gray rocks went into another. Rocks with a slight shimmer were the ultimate find, and they got their own special spot on the top of the porch steps.
• Lining up bark, flowers, or other nature finds in a row.
• Arranging different items from biggest to smallest, smallest to biggest, etc.

Related: Starting a Family Nature Journal

Transporting

This is one that has bothered me in the past! I’m thankful that I can recognize it now as meaningful play rather than annoying behavior! Children showing this play schema like to move things from one place to another. In our house, I know that if a library book is missing, it has probably been transported in Miss H’s backpack!

Nature Play Examples

• Moving pebbles from one area to another.
• Filling up a truck or bucket with bark and moving it to another place.
• Hauling armfuls of snow from one place to another.

Transformation

This schema, transformation, allows children to explore the properties of different things in nature. They put different parts and pieces together to make something new.

• My kids love to make mud! In the summer, they search out water so that they can make a desolate part of our yard into a mud pit. I’ve learned to not let this stress me out so much!
• Making pretend soups and stews with grass, bark, etc.
• Mixing natural objects with snow.
  

  

Trajectory

This is a schema that is definitely better outside! Children love to throw things: sticks, pine cones, and balls. Inside the house, throwing things can be problematic. But outside, this is such a fun way for them to develop their fine motor skills (while picking up a small object to throw) and their gross motor skills (when they throw the object.)

It’s hard to not automatically put the kibosh on throwing things, especially if there are other little ones around. I’ve learned that if it looks like E is going to hurt himself or someone else while throwing something, I can find a way to help make it a little safer. Instead of just throwing rocks at random, we can throw them into the stream.

Nature Play Examples

• Skipping pebbles on a pond.
• Tossing pine cones to hit a target.
• Jumping off of a large rock.
• Throwing blades of grass into the air and watching them come down.

Related: The Indoorsy Mom’s Guide to Getting Outside

Rotation

A sweet little one, spinning around until he gets dizzy, is experimenting with the schema of rotation.

Nature Play Examples

• Spinning a bird feeder that’s suspended from a tree.
• Turning a pinwheel around in the garden.
• Drawing circles in the dirt or snow with a stick.
• Marching around in circles.

Connecting/Disconnecting

Miss H is having fun with this schema currently! It includes putting things together, and maybe even taking them apart. Layering, stacking, and tying all fit into this category. Our Washi tape obsession comes from connecting it and layering it.

Nature Play Examples

• Making daisy chains.
• Making humans chains (just my kids??)
• Stacking flat stones.
• Tying a rope around a tree or tying sticks together with rope.

Related: Practice the Alphabet in the Great Outdoors

Orientation

Seeing things from a different perspective is the orientation schema. Through this schema, children learn that they can see the world through different perspectives. They do this literally now, but eventually they will learn to do this figuratively, too!

Nature Play Examples

• Hanging upside down from a branch.
• Doing handstands or cartwheels in the grass.

Enveloping

This schema involves wrapping things up. Your child might even wrap himself or herself up!

Nature Play Examples

• Burying toes in the sand.
• Wrapping things up in a big leaf.
• Your child might wrap up in a picnic blanket.

Which schemas are your little ones (or, is your little one!) interested in these days?