07/19/2026
Cas Holman, the author of “Playful” (2025)talks about the difference between “Free Play” -or Intrinsically motivated play- and “Structured Play” -or extrinsically motivated play.
Here’s a child at Play engaged fully and intrinsically driven-no extrinsic motivation (no adult telling them what they need to play at and no adult telling them how to play at this) but a purely curious and intrinsically motivated person who wants to see if he can ferment something.
Backstory: opening up the bin that holds food scraps for the compost bin, it was a discovered that a fruit had been fermenting for a few days (Attention Play). This child knew about fermenting and wanted to see if they could ferment something on their own (coming up with a hypothesis). They found a strawberry, dropped it into the bin, and the experiment began! The strawberry got looked at every few minutes then was left… to be continued.
Needed components for Free Play:
•Time: learners need lots of time to try out ideas, and adults need to leave children time to tinker
•Respect: We need respectful spaces; spaces where children’s questions are respected-where adults stop what they are doing and listen to the questions.
•Culture of Play: Adults who are willing to let go of prescribed monthly curriculum plans and their “power over” children and instead listen to what children want to know more about and letting curriculum follow those interests.
Results?
•Play connects us (Cas reminds us that if we can play together then we as humans can live together and that’s so needed now).
•Play brings us joy (a pickup game, digging in the soil, being in a park…) Check out Ross Gay’s Book of Delights (2019) for more joy!
•Play helps us understand our world from science to relationships
•Play helps our critical thinking…we ask “What if…”? We hone our observational skills…we make calculations/guesses. we practice at life and story making.
