East Taieri Preschool

Informal Play is vital for developing children's fundamental movement skills and hand-eye coordination.  This summer, grab a ball and get outdoors with your children and have some fun in the sun!

With the summer upon us, it’s a great time to get out and about with our children. The more we can do with children in their formative stages of development, the better level of skill they will have as they grow up. Toddlers as young as 18 months to two years, can roll a ball, and knock over plastic skittles, they can kick a ball and use a stick to push objects along. All this helps develop hand-eye coordination, sensory skills, anticipation, agility and ability to throw and catch. It doesn’t have to be organized, it just has to be regular. It all builds skill and equips our children with those basic attributes that enable them to build on as they mature and progress.

As parents, don’t underestimate the benefit and power of informal play with your children; throwing, kicking and rolling balls to them in the back yard, or at the park from an early age. The more we can do with our children by informally playing with them, the better equipped they are with the basic fundamental skills to have a go at anything. Skills they can build on for life.

In reality the major form of skill development is through this informal, often unstructured activity, children playing with and against each other, having fun. The more they do it, the better they become. This is to be encouraged. The more children can do informally, the better skills they develop, which can be applied in the formal organized sport setting.