It is often been said that play is the work of the child. Most parents take it to heart, organizing regular play dates, art groups, and other meet-ups with like-aged children so the kids can romp, tumble, climb, explore, create, interact, and grow alongside each other.
But it isn’t just the act of play that is healthy for children; it is free and unstructured play that is also key to their development. This kind of play is not only healthy, it is, as the American Academy of Pediatrics states, “essential for helping children reach important social, emotional, and cognitive developmental milestones as well as helping them manage stress and become resilient.”
In a world where our days are often filled with cell phones and soccer practice, providing a child the opportunity to just be in the world, with nowhere to go, nothing to do may seem like passive parenting, but in actuality it may be the greatest and most important gift we can give.
So how does a parent fit free and unstructured play into a busy day? Don’t fret. The ways are many and wondrous.
Bring Awareness to the Cause
First and foremost, the way to fit more unstructured time into our regular routine is for parents and caregivers to first consciously evaluate and question the claims made by advertisers and the idea that we should somehow be producing super-children. Then step back and bring conscious awareness to each moment when you allow your child to choose how they will spend an afternoon, what materials (if any) they will play with, and where that will all take place. Allow children to play with a toy the “wrong” way, swirl their fingers around in a pile of flour on the counter, or just sit and daydream the hour away in a special comfy spot. Simply practice saying yes to their idea of a perfect moment, hour, or day.
Offer Models
It is no great secret that children learn by following the examples around them. If a parent or caregiver values unstructured time, so will the child. Allow for times when you can just hang out and delight in having absolutely nothing on your agenda. As well, turn to the printed word for models of kids thinking creatively, getting messy, following their heart, and otherwise exploring in unstructured ways.
Weave Unstructured Time into Your Plans
Take little bits of time when you are out and about to be without your plan. Find quiet places to sit. Challenge your family to find a special rock, log, tree, brook side, or bench where they can take a quiet moment and listen to the unique sounds of the area, revive themselves, reflect on the new experiences, or simply experience passersby.
Practice the Art of Strewing
Strewing is the very fine art of placing items in seemingly random locations. It provides the opportunity for creativity by allowing a child to stumble upon materials in a natural way, thereby encouraging their exploration, without the child feeling watched, expected to perform, or otherwise pressured. On their own timetable, at their own pace, in a completely unstructured kind of way.
Unstructured play is unstructured learning. It leads to children who can think, create, solve problems, are happy, well-adjusted, have better language and cognitive skills. Unstructured Play is serious business. Have you and your children had yours today?
Ginger Carlson is an author and educational consultant, and regularly leads Wonder Workshops for parents, educators, and organizations. Click here for more information about her new book.
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13 comments:
We have forgotten how to allow children to just be children. Great article!
When my children were entering the social part of their life, my best friend and I decided that a social/activity calendar for 5 year olds was not necessary or healthy (for them or us). We co-established the rule that they could not play together until after they came home from school and "chilled". To chill meant...have something to eat, watch Scooby Doo and then go out and play. To this day my BFF and I still refer to our "unstructured" time as "Scooby Doo time"! Our adult children roll their eyes at this comment, but they value their "Scooby Doo time" too!
Thank you for the practical and easy-to-implement suggestions, Ginger. I'll try them with my pickles!
Parents and children in my rural neighborhood could take some of this advice to heart. These people are so busy, they are stressed. I know keeping a kid occupied is a good way to keep them out of trouble, but you can definitely overdo it. Everyone needs down time.
Children have amazing imaginations. It is paramount children have unstructured time to foster the magical worlds that live within their minds and spirits. Allowing children to have unstructured play is how dreams and leaders are born.
It is SO important to let children have free-time to let their imaginations flow. Without it they will never be able to come up with unique ideas or creative solutions of their own, just what fits in the confines of expectations. Thank you, Ginger, for helping grown-ups find ways of allowing children to discover their own élan.
I did not know until recently how important unstructured play is to a child's development. I'm telling all my friends and family with children to visit this blog, thank you!
Thank you for your insightful message. I have to remind myself to "schedule" in unstructured time into my day and it is an important message to pass on to our children.
Your blog post made me think of the countless hours I spent along the Connecticut shoreline and the breakwater at my favorite Cape Cod beach where I got to discover the wonders and mysteries of the water. I still take my nieces there and have seen the same wonderment in their eyes as they make their own discoveries. Thank you for reminding us of the importance of play at any age.
Sometimes a child just needs to be creative in his or her own way. Nothing achieves that better than open, unstructured play. Something tells me that we as adults can learn from this model.
Great article!! While it's beneficial to expose children to a complex society it's equally critical to recognize how much of a good thing is too much as now days kids are so intensely scheduled, it seems that we push ourselves too hard and tend to do the same with children, without allowing them to be children and have that "down time" to explore the world in their own terms
and enjoy the sweet idleness.
Thank you for this wonderful article! Unstructured play is so important for children and for self-discovery.
This article is great! It is such an important reminder to just let kids be kids sometimes! It's also unfortunate that we need a reminder to just chill out and allow for some unstructured time. My favorite memories as a child were of those times when all the neighborhood kids would get together and play hide and go seek (which usually turned into sardines, capture the flag, or any other array of summertime games) in the evenings, or when my sister and I would play school with our dolls. Our parents never over-scheduled us, and always encouraged us to go do our own thing.
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