…learning through play

As adults, we often lose that connection with play. And forget how powerful a learning tool play can be. We’re conditioned by societal and workplace norms to be ‘professional’ and sensible. We’re not encouraged to experiment due to the risk of failure or mistakes.

Therefore, play becomes an even more powerful tool - and not just for the kids! Bring more play into learning opportunities and you’ll all find that the information gets into your brain much easier.

Here are some tips for building play into your eco-learning.

🌍 Be sneaky - try not to go in with ‘Right, we're going to learn about climate change today!’ Introduce the game and the play elements, and let the topic sneak in. Just sneaking grated carrots into brownies 😉 Introduce a digital and tv free night in the house where you’ll play games as a family. And let everyone know the positive impact it has to stay off digital platforms. 

🌍 Be consistent - do it regularly. The best way to get messages through is repetition. Luckily, if a game is fun we’re all likely to want to play it again and again. Whereas you wouldn’t sit through a lesson over and over.

🌍 Be a role model - Show the eco changes you’re making - and turn them into a game or challenge. For example, if you've been trying to reduce plastic waste, talk about the changes as you make them. In time, set the kids a treasure hunt-type game around the house to identify where else change could be made. Focus on plastics or a new topic such as sustainable fashion and consumption in the home.

🌍 Use story, story, story - humans have used storytelling since time began. It’s our most powerful change-inducing tool. See where you can make your games character-driven and story-based. Use books to start the conversation and build from there. Create some play activities based on the book, whether it’s creating a piece of art, writing the next part of the story, or acting it out.

🌍 Find the positive inspirations - a large part of the climate conversation is all doom and gloom. We’re trying to change that! Look at positive news stories (we feature them most Fridays on our IG channel and in our fortnightly newsletter) and how they could influence activities and games for you to try. One idea is to create your own board game together with positive news cards which give you a boost along your journey to the end - achieving Net Zero.

🌍 Start with active hope - always link back to the possible future you/they want to create. It’s a powerful reminder of why we do what we do. And together, think about ways to take action to create that better future.

🌍 Watch your language - use positive, motivational words and stories, and try to stay away from doom and gloom. Similarly use ‘we’ instead of ‘you’. This helps reduce the feeling that it’s on them to do everything.

🌍 Adapt known formats - take an existing game, board game or tv show and create your own version to adapt it to the message you want to talk about. Or try creating a game yourselves. The kids will learn not just through play, but also from researching questions and bonuses or penalties to include in them.

🌍 Find your purpose - as a family, identify your purpose first and tailor the play to that. Which topic resonates most with you? Conservation of species, plastic in the oceans, weather events, social justice? Honing in on one area makes change feel more achievable and enhances your messaging. If you look at the whole picture it can feel very overwhelming and create action paralysis. 

🌍 Embrace the mistakes and failures - we can’t do everything right all of the time. Play is a great way to introduce the concept that sometimes, despite your best intentions, things will go wrong. Or sometimes we have days where something just isn’t possible. Make this normal, have fun with the failures rather than adding to guilt, and then talk about ways to do it better next time. A lot of our learnings are through things that go wrong, and we should celebrate it. It’s actually another step forward that our awareness has picked up on it. 

Most of all, have fun with it! It’s the best way to make changes seem achievable and long-lasting ❤️