Enriching Education: Play Unloosed

With Play Unloosed, your kids can discover scientific concepts in a fun, open-ended way that encourages creativity and inspiration. I had a chance to interview the founder to learn more.

Why are kids often so fascinated by loose parts?
Children love when they can be creative and independent, and play with loose parts empowers them to be fully in control of play. "Loose parts” is what educators call inviting, open-ended objects that children can manipulate and control. Within this definition a loose part can be so many things—from buttons and binder clips to branches and empty pipes. The key is that children are given enough of these items to create something with them, and that children are the ones allowed to decide what these objects “are,” from components of a fort to characters in a play or something else entirely.

As adults, sometimes we see these collections as just junk, but why do kids see them differently?Yes, this is the question we parents find ourselves asking when we give kids a toy and they are more interested in the box or the packaging pellets. We forget that childhood is this state of wonder and learning. We may have seen thousands of boxes by the time we become parents, but children are still discovering everything around them. We might just see a yogurt container, while they see the beauty of the shape, the usefulness of the lid, and the potential of the container to be a robot head, or a hat. Kids are less bound by convention than adults. We also need to remember that play is learning. What looks to us like a game is actually a cognitive process for building knowledge.

How can parents and caregivers encourage curiosity in the world around them?

I would start by encouraging the curiosity children already have. Children, especially young children, are so interested in everything. We adults just need to feed this curiosity. A great way to do this is by encouraging play with loose parts, vice objects with a pre-determined purpose. Loose parts encourage children to use their imagination, without anyone else telling them what stories to act out or what things should be. The best loose parts are found in nature, like rocks, seeds, and seashells, and when children play with them they are also gaining an appreciation for the natural world around them. When kids start playing with loose parts, they also learn to see everything as a potential play object. What can they do with tree logs? Used wrapping paper? Styrofoam? Play with loose parts teaches our children to be better observers, to see value in things that would otherwise be discarded. This way of looking at the world is the foundation for teaching children to be good citizens who care about the world around them.

Can you share a little bit about Play Unloosed?

Like any mom, I want to see my daughter engaged and learning, and I saw that happen when she started playing with loose parts. As I learned more about the research and educational philosophy behind loose parts, I would wonder why I had never heard about it before. I knew that other parents like me would want to know, and would also want to know how to get started with loose parts. This is why I started Play Unloosed. I wanted to make it easy for parents to implement at home an educational idea common in the best preschools. I also realized that we don’t always value things that are “free,” like pinecones and empty bottle caps. If I showed up at a birthday party with fifty empty paper rolls I might not be invited again—you might think I value your child less than the person who brought a brand new plastic tea set. My kits are curated sets of beautiful, reusable or biodegradable loose parts that can be proudly gifted, opening people’s minds to this way of play. I see them merely as a start to discovering the loose parts and learning opportunities all around us.