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What is open-ended play?
What makes sticks and stones such brilliant play materials? What’s so special about string and play dough?
It’s not what they are made of - it’s what you can do with them.
Sit down in front of a block of clay and the direction you take is only limited by your creativity.
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Wooden figures
Take a wooden figure in your hand and you immediately have a story. What will he do? Who will he meet? The story can go anywhere. It’s the most open-ended kind of play there is.
To learn more about this kind of play, see our article on small world play.
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Learn through play
Open-ended play is supposed to go wrong.
That’s where the learning happens.
Let your child make mistakes and don’t offer corrections. Working out the answer yourself is a powerful mechanism for extending thought.
Open-ended play is about teaching children to think for themselves - and it does so brilliantly.