“Play is the highest form of research.” – Albert Einstein
Some days are just meant for playing! It’s important for us to let them play, let them get messy & let them have fun.
I remember a few years back, at our 6 year old’s soccer practice, I looked over to find our 8 year old making a huge dirt hill at the bottom of a sliding board, so he can drive his cars up the slide and watch them roll down into his pile.
I see him filling his hands with dirt and moving it over to his hill. I see the dirt falling on his pants and his shoes on the way to the slide. I see his sleeves brush the dirt. I watch as he climbs the Landscape Structures playground stairs, only to slide down the slide and fall into that pile of dirt.
I turn to look at Becky, seeing her watching the same thing as me. Yet, instead of telling him to stop and come watch his brother, we both just laugh… because we know that playing is learning and he is the best learner of them all.
We watch him and we understand… he isn’t just playing – he is doing so much more than that.
In his eyes, the playground is more than just metal and plastic pieces. It is where he can turn on his imagination and be what ever he wants. He can be a king guarding his castle, or an astronaut building a new space center. The ideas are endless.
We don’t do anything, instead, we watch him play and relish in the fact that he is learning while he makes a really cool masterpiece over there. Clothes can be washed, hands can be cleaned, shoes can be scrubbed. We remember that we are raising kids that know how to play and create, not kids that are afraid to get their hands dirty.
We decided a long time ago, when our first son was young, that we weren’t going to let exhaustion or convenience get the best of us. Yes, it is easier to tell him not to get messy than to have to soak those clothes for the night. Yes, it is more convenient to bring an iPad and have him sit beside us for the hour, quietly. We didn’t want that for him… for any of our kids.
“When a human sits for longer than about 20 minutes, the physiology of the brain and body changes.
Gravity begins to pool blood into the hamstrings, robbing the brain of needed oxygen and glucose, or brain fuel. The brain essentially just falls asleep when we sit for too long.
Moving and being active stimulates the neurons that fire in the brain. When you are sitting, those neurons don’t fire. “~ edweek.org
Often, as parents, we can be extreme. We can either overly plan every second of our child’s day and fill it with so much that they do not learn how to play independently or we do not carve out any time at all. I suggest the best of both worlds: a happy medium. Let your kids play! Remember what it is like to be a child… with a playground full of wonder.
Looking back on our own childhoods, we appreciate the effect playground experiences had on who we ultimately became. These crucial, formative experiences shape children into thinkers, dreamers and leaders.
You may not fully see the benefits as your child slides down the same slide fifteen times in a row, but it is there:
- Character. Did you know that play raises self-worth? When he does it over and over, he is learning to be confident that he will figure this out. He will learn what works and what doesn’t. Putting his feet up makes him go faster. Lying on his stomach slows him down. He will figure it out on his own.
- Learn Patience. I can tell you that we don’t get it. If you told me to play on the same playground structure for 30 minutes, I’d tell you to find another adult to do it. Now if you asked Beau, our 8 year old, he would be happy to do it. He would turn that 30 minutes into 45, because playing teaches him patience. It takes time to get that slide just right. It takes time to figure out how he could build a giant dirt fort at the bottom of that slide, that would “transport him to the future”.
- Motor Skills. His fine motor skills were certainly in play as he built that hill at the bottom of that playground structure. He used his coordination to climb the monkey bars four times in a row, he used his spacial awareness to climb the steps, it took hand-eye coordination to climb over the Landscape Structures Cozy Dome® …
- Happiness. He is getting creative, learning what he likes to do. The smile on his face was the proof.
For a better tomorrow, we play today.
When you are with your kids on a playground, think about the important role playgrounds have in childhood development in the areas of persistence, leadership, competition, bravery, support, and empathy.
ps- get out there and play with your kids. As George Bernard Shaw reminds us, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”
Excellent article Mickey.
I’ve just discovered it while trying to figure out if I was right about quarreling with a mom at my boys’ kindergarten for telling her daughter not to play at the playground so that her clothes remained clean. YIKES!
I guess I was right, now! The worst thing you can do for your children is to suppress their imagination and limit their playtime.
Might I add the fact that the more your child stays at the playground, the more he or she stays away from obesity and video games that can be detrimental to their health and relationships?
Thanks for the tips
I will be following your blog from now on! Good Work!
–George
Thanks George and I agree with the more active the child is the better it is for their physical and metal health.