<p>In modern childhood, free, unstructured play time is being replaced more and more by academics, lessons, competitive sports, and passive, electronic entertainment.</p>
<p>While parents may worry that their children will be at a disadvantage if they are not engaged in constant, explicit learning or using the latest “educational” games, David Elkind’s The Power of Play reassures us that unscheduled imaginative play goes far in preparing children for academic and social success. Through expert analysis of the research and powerful situational examples, Elkind shows that, indeed, creative spontaneous activity best sets the stage for academic learning in the first place: Children learn mutual respect and cooperation through role-playing and the negotiation of rules, which in turn prepare them for successful classroom learning; in simply playing with rocks, for example, a child could discover properties of counting and shapes that are the underpinnings of math; even a toddler’s babbling is a necessary precursor to the acquisition of language.</p>
<p>I am a HUGE believer in unstructured, imaginative play. Some of my own fondest memories of childhood revolve around those times, and I’ve always made such times a priority in the lives of my children. Creativity needs fertile ground upon which to grow and develop. That ground can most easily be found in those pockets of time which are not filled to the brim with lessons/structured activities/organized learning. I credit the fact that my children do very well with a wide variety of kids of varying ages to the time they’ve spent in casual (and often very creative) play with siblings, friends, and neighbors. That something is intangible does not render it devoid of immense value.</p>
<p>Years ago I presented D Elkind’s thesis in “The Hurried Child” to a PTA group. I haven’t read his new book, but the theme was to not overwhelm child with too many ECs, help them learn to handle free, unstructured time, etc. Anyway, The parents of these elementary students totally disagreed. All nonsense!!!</p>
<p>One thing that was very important to me when my kids were young, was that they develop an ability to entertain themselves! I loved being around my kids, but even though I was a SAHM, I always had projects I was working on or books I wanted to read. I just couldn’t keep the kids entertained constantly, and didn’t really think it was my job anyway. I also wasn’t interested in driving everywhere all the time. Like Berurah, my childhood was spent in unstructured play, and I wanted my kids to have similar memories. The downside is that they could be VERY creative with paint and markers, and bizarre structures built for sledding. But we all survived!</p>
<p>i agree with all of the above. Anything to an extreme is bad. Our generation thought that if a little bit of enrichment or extracurricular outlet was good, more was better. I made a conscious effort not to go overboard with all the classes, extracurricular activities and structured play experiences when the kids were young - only gradually increasing the time they spent on these kinds of things as they got older and their interests developed. It is my strong opinion that our generation of parents were as a group, insane when it came to this kind of thing, and many still are. </p>
<p>I know parents of YOUNG children who don’t eat a single meal at home as a family during the week and literally never spend time together on the weekends either as the couple has to attend a never ending progression of games (often more than one team per child per season - school team, travel team , recitals, concerts etc. I think that the pendulum always swings though and I hope our kids will find a more happy medium when they have their own children.</p>
<p>Amen! I teach preschool (2 and 3 year olds). Every year I see more and more kids who don’t have a clue about how to play. It’s like they don’t have an original thought in their heads, no imagination. Parents worry about them learning letters and numbers and want to know if we offer computer classes!
Of course learning is important but the parents seem to be skipping right over things like putting on your own shoes and coat, learning to zip your jacket (and lunchbox) being courteous to others, following directions, etc. It’s a weird juxtaposition. Parents are so bent on giving their kids every advantage to get ahead but at the same time the kids don’t know how to function independently on anything because somebody is always telling them what to do.</p>
This is kind of embarrassing, but we actually have a sort of “graffiti wall” in our upstairs bathroom!!! :o It started years ago when the kids were small, and they’d leave “love notes” for each other <em>ROFL</em>. It evolved into a sort of a place for musing, venting, or supporting each other. When we had the house reappraised several years ago, I COULD NOT bring myself to paint over that stuff! :o Just too many memories there! So, we STILL have our graffiti wall, and yes, the kids, though older, still add to it regularly! </p>
<p>I was a big believer in open ended play too. Nothing like a few packing boxes and some tape and string. I spent a good part of my childhood playing “mud roads” in our back yard.</p>
So, we STILL have our graffiti wall, and yes, the kids, though older, still add to it regularly! </p>