In the article the problem of the use of the game at the stage of pre-school education. The author draws attention to the fact that in the preschool age the foundations of the personality is laid, to the will and arbitrary conduct is developed, are actively developed the imagination, creative abilities. All of these essential qualities must be formed not in the process of training sessions, in the main, leading activities for preschool children – in the game.The author emphasizes that children in today's game should actually be a “school of arbitrary conduct”, and no other operation can replace this function.