Learning through play - how do you play chess?

By tomorrow all three of my children will be in education. Jane will start half days at pre-school, David will be repeating his reception year and Anthony has just entered year 4. It has flown by.  But of course having three kids in education as I've described actually means only one of them will be sat at a desk for most of the day.

Both David and Jane will be learning through play.  Language skills, motor skills, executive functioning, reasoning, it's all started with play.

Take for example chess.  A while ago Anthony joined the chess club at school.  He had fun with it for a while, learned to play and his interests have since changed.  We were of course there to encourage it and he got a chess set as part of his last Christmas.  It helped him practice many key skills including motor skills, planning and even good old turn taking.

Jane, not a child to be out done, has been looking at the pieces too and lining them up on the board, though not always in the right order.  She asked me recently to play with chess, so I got it down from the cupboard and then got distracted by the beep from the dishwasher telling me it needed attention.

Whilst I was unloading I called through to Jane a few times.

"Remember to play carefully,"

"I am mummy,"

"Try not to loose the pieces."

"Ok mummy."

Then I came back through and here's what I found.  Jane had been careful and not lost a single piece. Indeed she knew exactly where they all were.

The Knight was asleep in his bed.  The King and Queen were having tea and several of the Pawns were taking tea to the Knight to get him up. Apparently he had been a 'bit ick yesterday and is still a bit tired."

Honestly, there is so much I could analyse with what was happening in her script.  But, it was all new to me.  This kind of play never happened with the boys perhaps because of their ASD and ADHD. David still mostly accesses his imagination through books and Anthony through films and other media too.  And that's fine too. I watched Jane and saw how much she was learning through it. Bedtime routines, table manners, being kind and looking after each other. And I thought of how many of these she'd draw upon helping teach her brothers or look out for them.

We all learn in different ways. Follow the child and see where it takes you.

This post support the #wetalkmakaton sign of the week 'school'

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