How to Play
June 1, 2006 by Lei
Filed under News and Links about Children's Things
Most of us can probably agree that kids today spend their time far differently than we did at their age. And the same can be said for every generation and the one preceding or following it. But let it never be said that we missed an opportunity to analyze and criticize.
University of London professor of psychology Peter Smith and nutritionist Rachel Biggins have concluded:
Regimented play can have negative consequences on the social and emotional development of children because they are too organised and take away children’s initiative and freedom of choice. Free-form play encourages the creative and multisensory development of children because it has no structure.
Conclusion?
We need to begin encouraging children to go out and play, rather than sit glued to the TV.
Hmmm. That sounds vaguely familiar.
The Daily Telegraph, May 31, 2006
Technorati Tags: play, children, kids, learning, tv, television
Some stuff besides twigs and grass to play with is handy too. They make big fat non-toxic sidewalk chalk in lots of colors. We go through a big box of it every summer, sometimes two boxes. A cheapo laundry basket filled with odds & ends that they can dump on the lawn is great too. Ours has life-size fake fruit, miscellaneous toy cars & trucks, play dishes, toy hoes/rakes/shovels, random buckets, old battered camping dishes, dirt clods, halves of plastic Easter eggs, and all kinds of great things.
In the house the baskets tend to be filled with things like Duplos, Fisher Price Little People peoples and vehicles, Thomas train stuff (the wooden tracks & cool train cars), and yet more toy cars & trucks. There’s a lot of other random stuff, but those things they regularly get out and squabble over.
Toy storage? The extra large Rubbermaid type storage bins (no lids), and misc plastic mesh style laundry baskets. The kids have almost as much fun playing with those as they do all the toys.
And, most importantly, let the kids loose with the stuff- if it gets scratched, dented, mutilated, whatever, ~let it go~. Get rid of it only if it’s actually dangerous to the kid. One of our preschoolers favorite trucks is one of those semi-trucks designed to hold matchbox cars. We’ve had to use big screws and electrical tape to repair it so it is functional.
I think that is the downside of all of these activities kids have these days. Not that these activities don’t have benefits, but they do have negative side effects. Children need freedom, need to feel free to be creative, to be anyone or anything they want to be. We try to give our Okapis as much free time as we can, along with play dates and structure within their day. Ironically, we scheduled free time heh heh. Whatever works, right?
Deb: It sounds like it’s really fun at your house!
JGS: Definitely! Some families rely on structure more than others for sure. BTW, it’s so cute how you call your kids okapis!