Module 3: "It’s Not Just a Game!" by Lori Calabrese

Hunters separated themselves by skill, and competition flourished.

The Ancient Greeks revolutionized sports by holding the world’s first Olympic games at Olympia in 776 B.C.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), “play is essential to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional wellbeing of children and youth.”

We learn how to negotiate plans, settle disagreements, and how to monitor our attitude.

The skills we learn playing can be applied to school and work.

Since organized sports are a hands-on, minds-on learning process, they stimulate our imagination, curiosity, and creativity.

The growing science of play is armed with research claims that play, and thus sports, is important to healthy brain development.

We use language during play to solve problems, we use thinking when we follow directions to a game, and we use math skills to recognize averages and odds of each sports play.

David Elkind...says that when young children play self-initiated games such as tag or hide and seek, “misunderstandings and hurt feelings are part of the learning process, and happen in a context of mutual respect. Those that arise in organized team sports, don’t have the same supportive network, the sense of competition outweighs the sense of cooperation, and can be hurtful to the child’s sense of self and self-esteem.”

According to Elkind, “Whenever we combine play with work, as in our hobbies, cooking, gardening, sewing, and carpentry, it is the full utilization and integration of all our interests, talents, and abilities. It’s an activity that makes us feel whole.”