Choose Play Every Day: How to transform everyday activities into playful learning opportunities

(Family Features) Play is a universal language spoken by people of all ages. Through play, children learn to forge connections with others, build a wide range of leadership skills, develop resilience, conquer fears and navigate relationships and social challenges.

For babies and toddlers, play is about far more than just having fun; it's about learning and building important skills, from cognitive and physical to emotional and social abilities. As children get older, play helps reduce stress levels, process difficult emotions, promote problem-solving and build confidence - skills they need to thrive in a rapidly changing world.

Despite its importance, play is often undervalued and overlooked due to busy schedules, lack of resources or misconceptions about its benefits. Approximately 4 in 10 children ages 2-4 do not get enough responsive interaction or stimulation at home, based on estimates from UNICEF, and roughly 1 in 8 children under age 5 don't have toys or playthings at home.

To overcome these barriers, it's essential for parents and caregivers to recognize the value of both structured and unstructured play. Simple, everyday items - like kitchen utensils, cardboard boxes, leaves and stones - can be tools for imaginative play. Setting aside dedicated time for play, even in short intervals, can make a difference.

In honor of International Day of Play, consider these ideas to turn everyday activities into playful learning opportunities from UNICEF, which recognizes play as an important means to help children by providing access to evidence-based parenting programs and working with governments to prioritize play-based teaching and learning practices in schools and other learning environments.

• Turn a grocery shopping trip into a scavenger hunt to teach kids about different foods, counting and categorization.
• Role play or act out different scenarios you read in books or see in movies to help develop social skills and emotional understanding.
• Make important language connections when getting dressed, such as identifying different articles of clothing and teaching colors.
• Use bathtime to explore buoyancy and water with floating toys.
• Play "I spy" while driving in the car or going for a walk around your neighborhood to help kids identify different animals, shapes, colors and elements of nature like trees, clouds and more.
• Explore the kitchen through tasks such as choosing ingredients, measuring them and keeping time while cooking.
• Use puzzles and building blocks to help develop problem-solving skills and hand-eye coordination.
• Stimulate senses and promote fine motor skills through play with materials like sand, water or crafting dough.
• Make sorting laundry educational by asking children to match socks by color or size, reinforcing their understanding of sorting and categorization.
• Take turns doing the feeding at snack or mealtimes to build hand-eye coordination.

Find more ways to engage your children in fun, engaging play at unicefusa.org/play.