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Freedom to Play
Are we creating a society of stressed out “mini-me’s”? Children who feel anxious, frustrated, insecure and overwhelmed? Today it appears that playtime has almost disappeared. Being a child is no longer about creating castles and imaginary worlds and being free to explore the unknown. It has become a world of seeking approval from others, over-achieving and setting long term goals. Are these goals more about the parent’s needs or the child’s? Gone are the days of kickball, tag, and running bases in our yards. Where have all the sandboxes gone? What about the monkey bars and the play gyms in our local parks? How about forts and tree houses? Who can remember when 3:00PM meant the end of the school day and the anticipation of a few hours of play and freedom before homework? We would fly home from school, tear off our school clothes, grab our play clothes and call up our friends. It was spontaneous and without a plan. It didn’t matter what you played; if it didn’t exist you created it and that was half the fun. Play used to be simpler, more relaxed – time used to slow down and Saturdays seemed to go on forever. Remember when summer meant lazy days and having the freedom to play for hours? We had time to catch lightning bugs, and search for lizards and frogs under rocks. We had picnics on the grass and colored pictures for hours. We had time to just be! Between schoolwork, organized sports, music lessons and dance, children are now way too busy to play. Every minute of their day has been taken up by structured lessons and responsibilities. Who does that sound like? Is this not what every adult complains about? Children must first learn the art of curiosity, imagination, enthusiasm and joy before they can embrace the challenges that await them in the adult world. Play has become more structured and more sedentary. It is usually centered on electronic media. Video games played with people you never met and conversations on the Internet have created an environment where children spend a lot of time alone. Children have lost their incentive to play and entertain themselves. When children actually do play with each other it is usually a scheduled event, programmed by adults. When adults get involved in arranging children’s play time, the very nature of play changes. Competition, structure, intentionality, organization and control take over, leaving creativity, camaraderie, freedom and choice behind. As a result children become more focused on comparing themselves to others and less on creating their own uniqueness. Too many children are expected to act like and become adults way before their childhood is over. So much emphasis is put on academic achievement at very young ages. Recess in schools has become a thing of the past, with the idea that less time to play is more time to study. One of the fastest growing industries is tutoring, with over 30% of it dedicated to children between the ages of 2 and 6. Will learning how to subtract and add teach a child more than sitting on the sidewalk watching ants build their colonies, or laying on the grass on a summer afternoon creating images in cloud formations? Research shows that recess allows a child time to relieve stress, refresh the mind; release pent up energy, improve attention and increase interest. Specialists in child development have said for quite some time that play is critical for child development. If you want your children to grow into strong, confident, creative young adults, you must allow them the time to play and pretend where everything and anything is possible – to create a strong sense of how they envision the world they want to live in and the people they want to be. Playing with each other allows children to act out different roles and teaches them the social norms that they will eventually have to follow in society. It helps them to better understand people and the world around them. Without this interaction, children will become creatively rigid, their social skills will be limited and their physical wellbeing will suffer. Through Unstructured Play Children:
• Learn how to handle the unexpected Who wouldn’t want all of the above for their children? How much would you pay to have someone or something that could teach all of this? This incredible learning tool is available to all and it is completely free of charge. It can take place anywhere at any time, you just have to free up the time for it to happen. This incredible learning program is called PLAYING!
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Is the joy of play becoming
extinct for our children?