What do you think?
Rate this book
The power of play,
The founders of Creative Playthings, Inc. discuss the importance of toys and games in a child's physical, emotional, and social development and examine key figures who have encouraged play in the educational environment
334 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
14 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 7, 2026
This is a fascinating book, and immensely relevant (as I've passed by multiple "mother scout" tables selling girl scout cookies on behave of their daughters).
First, the definition of play. The author defines play as an activity with no end goal in sight - you're doing it for the fun of it, and it's open ended with no end goal/expectations.
The author argues that "play" is very essential for children to develop skills to navigate the world. When growing up with rigid expectations and over scheduling, children would be forced to learn how to "work" growing up. This means that as an adult, absent of abundant of childhood play, the adult would see life as ulitarian means to get "something" and never live in the presence nor have ability to obtain mastery on a given disepline.
The author argues that adult should provide ample present but not involvement when raising children. Children should be allowed to fail, push their internal limits, to have agency of control.
Increasingly I've been feeling that learnt helplessness could really be tied to absent of play growing up. When a person grows up programmed to have binary rigid thinking, they obviously wouldn't have the ability to adapt when the world change.
Good book, will dwell on it more.
First, the definition of play. The author defines play as an activity with no end goal in sight - you're doing it for the fun of it, and it's open ended with no end goal/expectations.
The author argues that "play" is very essential for children to develop skills to navigate the world. When growing up with rigid expectations and over scheduling, children would be forced to learn how to "work" growing up. This means that as an adult, absent of abundant of childhood play, the adult would see life as ulitarian means to get "something" and never live in the presence nor have ability to obtain mastery on a given disepline.
The author argues that adult should provide ample present but not involvement when raising children. Children should be allowed to fail, push their internal limits, to have agency of control.
Increasingly I've been feeling that learnt helplessness could really be tied to absent of play growing up. When a person grows up programmed to have binary rigid thinking, they obviously wouldn't have the ability to adapt when the world change.
Good book, will dwell on it more.
Displaying 1 of 1 review