Get out the paint and glitter!

Free Play

“Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.”

Robert A. Heinlein

When I was a child in the 1950's, parents practiced what is now termed, “benevolent neglect.” They were the furthest thing from helicopter parents, who hover over and around their children, and try to build in every opportunity and safeguard. We played outside from morning 'til night, and no one gave us instructions as to how to play, or where to play. We invented games, we climbed, we built, we scuffed our knees and stubbed our toes, and we survived. In doing our own thing, we came away with some skills regarding cooperation and fair play, how to manage our environment, how to keep ourselves safe, and how to abide by rules established by us.

Childhood is a time for discovery and mastery in every area of life, and it's all learned through play. When we deprive children of long stretches of time for free play, we, by definition, also deprive them of opportunities to learn life skills. We build playgrounds that look good to adults, and children figure out ways to use them differently. I remember my sons climbing up slides, rather than sliding down, and climbing the ropes of swings to hang from the cross-bar at the top. Creativity is the nature of childhood, and the more we simply provide the time and materials and let them go, the more they will learn. Children invest themselves one hundred percent in play. They use every sense organ and build neural pathways that will serve them for the rest of their lives. Creative play is critical to learning anything else.

If you want to rediscover the child in yourself, if you've forgotten how to play, set aside some time and grab a pile of wood and nails, scraps of cloth, paint and sand, glue and glitter, and go to work. Make a mess, make something silly; pile them up and decorate them with flags; do anything creative and, in doing so, you will free up your mind and energies for more serious endeavors. There is still a child inside each of us that needs to play.

                                                                In the Spirit,

                                                                     Jane