How should we play with Generation Alpha?

We should look to offer play that is balanced, collaborative, and meaningful for each and every child.

Our little ones are growing up in a world that’s hyper-connected, over whelming digital but we are increasingly conscious about the need for balance, offering activities that consider and focus on developing their well-being alongside this fast changing play landscape.

Our children in nursery can now be referred to as digital natives (they have never lived without internet and digital materials in their everyday lives) but they’re also craving real-world play, creativity, and human connection.

As we know many of our children love and are exposed regularly to digital play. It’s the world we live in, even if we don’t like or agree with it, it’s their reality.

This means we must ensure they also have plenty of real-world, tactile experiences. Our activities in loose parts play, nature, mud kitchens, playdough and many other opportunities should always strive to engage their hands and spark imagination.

A fab example of this is in outdoor play where they are involved in climbing, digging, gardening, or building ant worlds.

We know, we just need to take time to full consider how to balance the digital world with ‘hands on’, we need to take a little more time to ensure we are definitely offering the breadth and balance they deserve.

Most children love to tinker and figure things out. Our role continues to be to support, scaffold and extend their ideas and thinking. One way to mix this all together is to use open ended materials with purpose, to encourage our children to design and experiment. Set up mini missions, puzzle plots and treasure hunts for them to solve while at play.

Suggest they use digital tools to record and capture their ‘doing’.

Indoors set up makers spaces or creation stations where children have access to materials that are recycled and reclaimed for them to use alongside open ended objects.

Here you could add in a little tech to enhance this too. An animation app to highlight their movements, simple music making app to create a rap narration or simply some torches, light source to add another dimension to the play.

When they gather and begin to plan and design their shadow play, to create sculptures with the recycling or become superheroes in the role play they can extend their own ideas and those of their friends with voice recorders, video or still cameras or talking wands.

It’s time we all embraced the world of our children, not to expect them to live alongside us dinosaurs, who are a little scared to try this new world. I know I was terrified and still need a lot of practice and to gain a lot of knowledge about these digital tools but at last I’m open to it.