NPR story on the importance of unstructured play time

[Brenda]

I thought this was a good one to share, even though I know it is just preaching to the choir here. :)

Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514)

[hamamelis]

Thanks! I forwarded it to my boss. And I can happily report while I was reading it DD was playing in her room having this great conversation, by herself. :cheer1

[Anne]

Thanks! I forwarded it to my boss. And I can happily report while I was reading it DD was playing in her room having this great conversation, by herself. :cheer1

Don't you love listening in to those conversations?

[hamamelis]

Don't you love listening in to those conversations?

OMG Anne, the kid never stops talking!!! But yeah, I do love hearing what she comes up with.

[Anne]

OMG Anne, the kid never stops talking!!! But yeah, I do love hearing what she comes up with.

LOL! Oh, I didn't know that, but I'm glad you knew what I meant. :)

[hamamelis]

LOL! Oh, I didn't know that, but I'm glad you knew what I meant. :)

You know the Volvo commercial, with the little girl in the stripey tights, flowered dress and messy hair? That talks nonstop? That's DD. :p And more than one person has mentioned to either DH or I how much that commercial reminds them of DD. :p

[mudcreekmama]

It is interesting that beyond advertusing it doesn't mention television - and passively watching tv has replaced a lot of free play time in kids lives.

[Bickery]

Thanks! I forwarded it to my boss. And I can happily report while I was reading it DD was playing in her room having this great conversation, by herself. :cheer1

I love overhearing children play, especially when it's a game of their own creation that they are negotiating together.

I also love overhearing ds play alone, explosion sounds and all.

[deeka]

I think this work is fascinating and it makes a lot of sense to me.

I also wonder about how this works in individual children. Thinking about my own kids: DS1 was exposed to comparatively little television, advertising, battery-operated toys, etc. We encouraged creative play, gave him lots of free time for it, read him tons of stories, etc. But he never was much into creative play; I can't remember ever hearing him tell himself stories, for example, and he never was into dress-up or playing house or acting out stories, or things like that.

DS2, who is 5.5 years younger, watches way more television than his brother did at similar ages, watches way more commercial television, plays with lots of age-inappropriate toys that do not promote creativity, and generally has a more structured life than his brother did. (Although I would wager a guess that he is exposed to less of all of these things than the typical American child.) Yet he has always been far more creative in his play, sometimes talks to himself when he plays, loves dressing up and acting out stories, etc.

DS1, my non-creative player, definitely has some delays in executive order function. DS2 is light-years ahead of where his brother was at the same age. (Indeed, in some ways, DS2, at 4.5, has more self-control than 10-year-old DS1 has.) :eek:

[jump4joy]

Very interesting, thanks for passing that on. There was a cool article I read awhile back, I think in Growing Without Schooling, written by a grown unschooler about how mostly in his "school years", he and his friends played this ever-evolving imaginary game and all the things they learned from this "game" (what some might call a waste of time). I love listening in on my kids when they play "the imaginary game" (which is always different, but that's always what they call it). My best memories of childhood were roaming through the woods with my friends, being elves or fairies or princesses or horses. I remember playing these games as late as 7th and 8th grade.

[Gargoyle]

You know the Volvo commercial, with the little girl in the stripey tights, flowered dress and messy hair? That talks nonstop? That's DD. :p And more than one person has mentioned to either DH or I how much that commercial reminds them of DD. :p

LOL that's so funny. When that commercial came out, our apt. manager, the apt.'s head of maintenance (the manager's husband), my father and sister and our really great friends all told us at one time or another that the little girl on the commercial reminded them of Jessie.

When you were saying your dd was talking to herself in her room LOL I had a feeling of, I love when Jessie's in her room talking to herself because that means I'm getting a break of being talked to.

I do though, love to hear the things she comes up with. Her stuffed animals have such interesting things to talk about. :)

[Pensive]

My kids play in an insanely driven way. On some of the homeschool lists, people do a LOT with their kids. My kids have a lot of interests. We could do unit studies and stuff like that. They would be receptive. But all they are really interested in is playing. I would have a hard time flagging a kid down to get his attention to do something. To me, it's clear that they are happy and that they need to play; they play like it's their career. And while one of mine loves toys, he is the same one who can amuse himself (and his brother) for hours with paper and Scotch-tape. But sometimes, I feel guilty because they spend 90% of their time playing off on their own (together, but without me, I mean). I almost feel neglectful.

I have so many fond memories of playing with my sister. We used to play for hours and hours in our basement with our dollhouse and Barbies. It sounds dull but all the dolls had complicated relationships and histories. Sometimes, I made them babies out of clay. The dolls all had different names and roles, depending on which game we were playing. We played from the moment we got out of school until my mother made us come upstairs. And I remember all the imaginary play we did. We used to have arch-enemies (invisible of course) who had the same names as us so they would trick people into thinking that they were really us. And if they captured us, they would make us do naughty imaginary things, like mop the floor with mud. We used to drive my mother nuts when she was driving, because we used to pretend that various cars had the arch-enemies inside and that they were chasing us. We were weird kids. And we both produced weird kids. But it's fun. :spinning: And it's apparently good for us too.

[mudcreekmama]

In waldorf early childhood circles there's a lot of discussion on the importance of this kind of benign neglect - an adult's job isn't to interfere with their play by being a playmate, its to be a good rolemodel with your own "work" that they can observe, absorb and work out through their own play.