Time Flies When You’re Having "Hard Fun"

Think about a time recently when time seemed to just fly by…Maybe you were playing a board game with friends and family, or maybe it was last week during your favorite exercise class. We can become so engaged in an activity that before we know it, we look up from what we’re doing and hours have passed. It’s not because these activities are simply fun, it’s because they are hard too. 

Seymour Papert coined the term “Hard Fun” to describe this phenomenon. It starts by engaging in something we are initially interested in, and then keeps us engaged by encountering a challenge; one that’s just enough to keep our wheels turning and striving to find the answer, but not too much where we become overwhelmed and don’t know where to move next. This creates an ideal environment for learning, and where we most often accomplish our goals.

So what does “hard fun” look like? We see it often at The GIANT Room...

“I Want To Make It Fly!” We met a girl at the Bank Street Fall Fair who had never used electronics before. She was really intrigued by the fan so, I showed her how she could make a circuit to turn it on, and then how to create a switch so she could turn it off. She was so excited and I thought that would be the end of her visit. But then, she asked if she could make something with the craft supplies. She held a box and said “I want to make it fly!” She stayed at our table for nearly another hour tinkering with the fan, its speed, the weight of the box, and the materials. 

“Can we use the light from the littleBits as power to turn on an LED?” In our after school class “Think Like A Maker”, we introduced littleBits as a form of light to add to the projects they had created the week before. While most children went to work on their projects, one group in particular was curious if they could use the light from the littleBits LED to turn on an LED using a solar panel. They spent the remainder of class adding more and more littleBits lights until they could get the bulb to illuminate. 

“No teachers!”  Recently, a 4 year old came to our Chelsea Hub. She ran to the electronics table and wanted to start exploring. When I offered to show her how some of the materials work, like how to illuminate an LED, or turn on a motor, she said “No, I want to do it by myself!”. I sat with her for a bit to see if she would reach out when she got stuck. But she never did. She spent over 2 hours running around the room, trying every electronic material and machine, with ultimately, no success. However, she never got frustrated. The only time she was upset was when she had to leave.

Kids are inherently curious; so when kids pick their own challenge, they naturally gravitate towards a task that initially piques their interest. As adults, our job is to take a step back. When kids are engaged in an activity, let them keep exploring. Let them struggle through the exploration and discovery of a challenge. Let kids experience the joy of hard fun.