The Importance of Just Playing

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NPR aired an interesting story about how important it is for kids to use their imaginations and have free time to play without structure. They emphasized that fancy toys and a set agenda are not beneficial for a child's brain development . Children learn important skills from just acting out original entertainment. People of certain age probably remember making up rules for street games or how older kids would change the rules and you felt it was unfair. This was a good thing. So forget about all those karate lesson, adult supervised soccer games, Nintendos, battery operated trucks and talking dolls. Encourage mud pie bakeries, forts made of overturned chairs and blankets, doll houses from shoe boxes and original games with crazy rules. Push the kids into the backyard and make them think up stuff on their own.

Here is the link:

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills

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greenwitch
You are so smart, Greenwitch.

BBB

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Green Witch,

Thanks for the good post and the accompanying link. This insight to children's brain development via free-form play is good common sense and good science.

Sure, a kid can no longer, age 5, walk to a city park to play with his or her friends, as I did when a child. HOWEVER, there are backyards, and there are little-used portions pf school playgrounds and playing fields, and there are fenced-in cross-country courses that include minor-scale forests, etc. And, if one lives in an urban apartment, kids can still engage in free play there. There really is no good reason for providing growing minds with television and video games; the few positive effects these electronics have are trivial when compared to the positive effects of free play.

Free the children to play free!

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As a kid, the best "toy" I had was a set of wooden blocks that my dad made by cutting 2'x4" lumber to various short lengths. I had a huge box of them and I (and my siblings) could, and did, make all all sorts of things from them.

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BBB
THE COLORS OF MY LIFE ---BBB

In my youthful blue fantasy period,
my creative mind was awhirl with
artistic and inventive ideas
to catch the wind in a gossamer net.

Philosophical idealism,
and boundless physical
and mental energy convinced me
I could weave ropes of tawny sand.

MORE THE COLORS OF MY LIFE ---BBB

Now, in my mellow yellow period,
in my heart I still support idealistic warriors,
but have put my crusades behind me.
Cautious planning for a shrinking future
leads me into more sedentary,
but intellectually stimulating pursuits.
These I can handle.

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My pet issue!

Thanks for the article, appreciated.

I do think that free play can coexist with computer play and occasional TV though.

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Re: greenwitch

BumbleBeeBoogie wrote:

You are so smart, Greenwitch.

BBB

I guess science is just catching up to me.

Miklos7 wrote:

Free the children to play free!

Maybe we should print up T-shirts

fishin wrote:

As a kid, the best "toy" I had was a set of wooden blocks that my dad made by cutting 2'x4" lumber to various short lengths. I had a huge box of them and I (and my siblings) could, and did, make all all sorts of things from them.

What's just as important about toys like this is the happy memories they create. How many kids today are going to feel warm and fuzzy nostalgia when they think about the hours they spent playing "Guitar Hero"?

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sozobe wrote:

My pet issue!

Thanks for the article, appreciated.

I do think that free play can coexist with computer play and occasional TV though.

I agree - I think the problem is we don't have balance. I have a nephew that will not stay with me because we don't have cable, the computer is dial-up and our TV is too old and dinky to do whatever it is he does with game hook-ups. When he was younger he loved to come and chase frogs, tear around the woods and build tree forts. I hope those years have done him some good and he will look back on them fondly.

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The only playthings I had as a child were a stick and a tire. I spent many days rolling that tire down dusty gravel roads, balancing it with the stick-- raucous birds cheering me from their coveted telephone-wire perches, grasshoppers frantically jumping out of the way, the sun beating down on my straw hat with such an intensity that I thought my hair would catch fire.

And now, all these years later, I still have that stick and tire.

And I think I will head outside for a stimulating game.

Thanks, Greenwitch, for opening the portal to my childhood and casting me into a sea of joy.

I love you for that.

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Those 2 x 4 x (whaatever) blocks sound terrific.

Well, I'm a product of exposure to tv (1949) anda few movies - but all my and my friends' play was 'free play'. Doll houses out of boxes, houses out of cartons and chairs and the odd old sheet, forts out of lots of stuff, telling ghost stories, dyeing easter eggs to trim a tree, making fudge. No programmed "play" except one summer set of swimming lessons, and some years of piano lessons. Lots of general running around playing tag, etc.

We've touched on some of this before at a2k, the need to take children places so they'll be safe, not picked off the street by creeps; how more mothers stayed at home back then, and so on. Still, even in today's organized world, I think imagination time can be fostered.

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Gus, I think that stick and tire have made you the rural genius you are today. Be grateful.

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Sozobe is correct: ideally, there should be some computer play--though video games are unnecessary. Computer literacy is and is likely to remain a life-skill.

The site I like for younger kids on a rainy day is RED FISH, which has NO directions. The young visitors simply hack their way into all kinds of creative, imaginative stuff. My first visit, I composed a brief piece of music (which was truly awful!), drew, painted, shifted geometric shapes, etc., etc. Our older daughter turns her young daughter (age 3.8) loose in the FISH occasionally, and our granddaughter loves it. It is, without any directions, fairly close to a free-form play area. Also, it is squeaky-clean. Nice, safe on-line environment.

www.poissonrouge.com

Oh, yes. You can play in French on this site as well as in English. Not too shabby!

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That looks fabulous! Never heard of it before, thanks for the pointer.

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Miklos7 wrote:

Green Witch,

Thanks for the good post and the accompanying link. This insight to children's brain development via free-form play is good common sense and good science.

Sure, a kid can no longer, age 5, walk to a city park to play with his or her friends, as I did when a child. HOWEVER, there are backyards, and there are little-used portions pf school playgrounds and playing fields, and there are fenced-in cross-country courses that include minor-scale forests, etc. And, if one lives in an urban apartment, kids can still engage in free play there. There really is no good reason for providing growing minds with television and video games; the few positive effects these electronics have are trivial when compared to the positive effects of free play.

Free the children to play free!

just thought i would add: now all kids have backyards, and i thinkk this is gonna make the next few generations well. different.

growin up playing on an internet playground? hah.. sad but probablly gonna be true.

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Miklos7 wrote:

www.poissonrouge.com!

Huge hit!!! Sozlet played on this while I made dinner last night and kept running in the kitchen and saying, "Mom, you have GOT to see this...!"

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Soz I popped around on the site too, it's fine for some unsupervised computer time. However, I think the point of free play is for the child to make the visuals and the noises themselves.

I've always liked the idea of Amish faceless dolls. The Amish leave off the features for religious reasons, but I think it adds to the power of a child's imagination:

http://redondowriter.typepad.com/sacredordinary/images/faceless_doll.JPG

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Green Witch wrote:

Soz I popped around on the site too, it's fine for some unsupervised computer time. However, I think the point of free play is for the child to make the visuals and the noises themselves.

Sure, and I think we've already agreed that there's a place for both. Not saying that a site like this REPLACES free play. (That would be when she goofed around in the snow in the back yard for a couple of hours yesterday.)

As a computer site, though, I really like it. I love the hacking aspect -- just figure things out. A lot of ingenuity on display.

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That's why the electric guitar, the police car, that makes horrible sounds, tickle-me elmo and whatnot always end up in the drawers after having been played for a while.

The munchkin is just as happy (or happier) playing with the syrofoam chips that come with grandma's valentine's present (and the box) than the present itself!

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Agreeing with the need to 'just play' but also with the idea of balance and moderation in all things.

The most popular adventures in our house for a long time were found in the kitchen cupboards. We left child-safety locks off a couple bottom cupboards and the girls stacked tupperware and clanged on pots and pans to their hearts content. A couple years later we moved up to standing on a kitchen chair at the sink and the toy dishes were washed, and washed, and washed, and .... "Play in sink?" (pronounced 'pay') was a constant refrain.

The commercial toys were coveted but barely used. I started to say no to many of the requests. But I never said no to art supplies or craft materials (although Mr B put his foot down about glitter).

My two girls are very different when it comes to wanting to tune out (disengage). One wants to veg in front of the television, the other prefers PC games and online interactions. To each her own so long as it's in balance with everything else.

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I think we all agree on the balance aspect. You can't throw out the computer or your car, or the phone, or the flush toilet in this society (I could debate about the TV). I think the problem is the balance has been lost on the side of free play. Most kids (including the ones in my family) tend to choose the electronic entertainment when given a choice. Many parents are fine with loading the kids up with computer activities and after school lessons. My SIL loved it when my nieces would sit for hours in front of "Reader Rabbit" and then go off to ballet class, baton twirling, junior girls soccer etc. As these kids become older I find they have attached themselves to their electronics like barnacles. Worse, I see this is happening more and more in younger children. Our local day care advertises that they have every Disney movie video ever released and all children get computer time every day! Yippee.

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