Over the years, there have been many debates over children’s education. This includes school structure, discipline, teaching styles, curriculum, and many other contributing factors. Children are used to having structured rules from a young age, starting from their home environment, through day care, and elementary school. Parents and educators prefer using this type of method to regulate children’s behavior and their schedule. Although children may be used to structured routines, children also need a balance of their own time such as free play. Scheduled educational activities and designated nap times essentially provide growth for the child during this time frame. According to the Oxford Dictionary, free play can be referred to as “unregulated or unrestricted playtime for children.” (Web, Oxford Dictionary, 2017, Oxford University Press). …show more content…
Indeed, it has been proven that free play has more advantages than disadvantages. Furthermore, free play for young children establishes positive cognitive and emotional behavior. In addition, the theory of free play is recognized and recommended by many historical educators. The goal of this paper is to outline and explain why free play is vital for children in a preschool environment. This paper will be detailing the advantages as well as disadvantages of incorporating this method inside the classroom. The research for these findings were documented by several peer-reviewed academic