Where did the game with children come from?
Every cultural phenomenon has its own history and origin. What is the history of the game?
Back in the XIX century.the Russian philosopher GV Plekhanov suggested that the game is the child of labor. The Soviet scientist DB El'konin, developing this idea, pointed out that, apparently, the game first appeared as the activity of adults, replacing and depicting the real labor process. This happened at the early stages of the formation of human society, when an effective image was the most accessible to a person a means of communication, preliminary coordination of labor actions and communication about them. Such an effective image of reality received in the future the functions of magical rituals, rituals, bringing good fortune, etc.
Children were drawn into the very process of labor and to the process of performing rituals and rituals. In process of complication of productive work they could be included only in a ceremonial side of it, recreating sense of labor activity and relations in it adults. So, according to the assumptions of modern researchers, there was a child's play.
About the same story has a children's toy. On the one hand, objects depicting man, animal totems, included in ritual actions, went, like these actions themselves, into a children's game. On the other hand, the children's game was served by specially created adult copies of real tools. When the child was drawn into the working life of adults, he received at his disposal reduced tools, with which he really acted. However, as the production of labor and, of course, the tools of labor became more complicated, the child could no longer use them for labor operations and received from adults no longer a real object, but a simplified model that allowed him to be attached, if not to the very process of labor,its meaning( to imitate the actions of an adult, "like" doing the same thing).
Gaming, by virtue of its features, spontaneously becomes a means of raising children. This happens insofar as a child must be attached to the life and work of adults, and direct inclusion in labor without prior preparation becomes impossible. Through the game, the child's orientation in the life of society is carried out.
All this, of course, historical and logical reconstruction, although quite convincing. How and when the game really appeared - it's hard to judge: But archaeological finds and objects, which archaeologists regard as toys) indicate that the age of the game is estimated at least for millennia.
In folk( traditional) pedagogy, the game as an educational tool has been used for a very long time.
The scientific pedagogy of the game is usually associated with the name of the outstanding German teacher F. Froebel, who first created a system of developing games for young children. It appeared together with the creation of special social institutions for the upbringing of children before the school - kindergartens( or, as they are now called in some European countries, mother schools).If the school as a social institution of upbringing has centuries-old traditions, then kindergartens appeared not so long ago - approximately in the middle of the last century;Then the game became the main pedagogical means of educating preschool children.
Currently, most children from 3 to 6 - 7 years in our country attend kindergartens( as in many other countries in the world).The upbringing of the preschool child has become not only the business of the family, but also the task of the whole society.
It would seem that pedagogy has taken the game into its own hands and can free parents from caring about taking care of their children. However, this is not the case, and in our time, parents should pay special attention to children's play. Why - we'll look into this a little later. For this, we must first understand what kinds of games exist at all.