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healthykids


pediatrics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and University of Pennsylvania and a leading expert on resilience, remarks, “Every child needs free, unscheduled time to master his or her environment.” Play is valuable because it miniaturizes the world to a manageable size and primes kids for learning.


They Thrive on Natural, Unstructured Fun by Madeline Levine


Letting Kids Just Be Kids


Well-meaning attempts to fi ll a child’s summer with enriching activities may do more harm than good. Why not let kids just be kids?


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otions of summer as endless free time—to climb trees, chase fi refl ies, build a fort in


the woods, maybe set up a lemonade stand—have been supplanted in many families by pricey summer camps or other highly-structured activities. But unstructured play isn’t wasted time; it’s the work of childhood, a vehicle for developing a basic set of life skills. Research published in Early Childhood Research & Practice shows that children that attend play-based rather than academic preschools become better students. Child development expert David Elkind, Ph.D., author of The Power of Play, maintains, “Play is essential to positive human development.” Various types teach new concepts and contribute to skills, including helpful peer relations and ways to deal with stress.


Thinking back to our own best childhood memory, it won’t be a class or lesson, but the time we were allowed to just be.


Self-initiated and self-directed play means the child is calling the shots and learning what comes naturally. If a child strums a guitar because he loves it, that’s play. When being instructed, the child may enjoy the experience, but it’s not the same, because the motivation is at least partly external. The American


Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children play outside as much as possible—for at least 60 minutes a day—yet almost half of America’s youth routinely aren’t getting any time outside,


according to study fi ndings reported in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Outdoor play helps combat childhood obesity, acquaints them with their larger environment and supports coping skills. Every child is different. But as Dr. Kenneth R. Ginsburg, a professor of


22 Central Florida natural awakenings


Consider the complexities involved in a game of chase. Kids develop social skills in organizing and agreeing on rules, and then participate in the physical and creative actions of the actual activity while resolving confl icts or disagreements during its course— providing a foundation for excelling in school and even the business world. Solitary play also provides problem- solving practice. A young girl playing with her dolls may try out different ways of handling the situation if one of them “steals” a treat from the dollhouse cookie jar before tea is served. Because youth haven’t yet developed a capacity for abstract thinking, they learn and discover more about themselves mainly by doing. Developing small self- suffi ciencies gives kids a sense of power in a world in which they are, in fact, small and powerless. This is why kids love to imagine dragon-slaying scenarios. Taking risks and being successful in independent play can increase confi dence and prepare them to resist peer pressures and stand up to bullying. Given our global challenges, tomorrow’s adults will need the skills developed by such play—innovation, creativity, collaboration and ethical problem solving—more than any preceding generation. A major IBM study of more than 1,500 CEOs from 60 countries and 33 industries in 2010 found that the single most sought-after trait in a CEO is creativity. To survive and thrive, our sense of self must be shaped internally, not externally. We need to learn and focus on what we’re good at and like to do; that’s why it’s vital to have kids try lots of different activities, rather than immersing them full-time in parental preferences and dictated experiences. Leading experts in the fi eld agree that considerable daily, unguided time not devoted to any structured activity facilitates their investment in the emotional energy required to develop their own identities.


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