Summer Play Seven Ways to Let a Kid be a Kid


by Madeline Levine W


hy not make summer fun


again? Here’s how.


4 Follow the prin- ciple that regular playtime is vital for everyone.


4 Get in touch with our own playfulness. Kids


really do model what they see. Present a picture of adulthood that children will want to grow up to emulate.


4 Tell the kids it’ll be a laid-back sum- mer. Ask them to create a fun bucket list of which activities they want to keep... and which they want to toss. Parents may be shocked by what they say they want to quit doing. Sometimes kids do things because we want them to, and somehow we fail to notice their heart hasn’t been in it.


4 Arrange low-key times with friends and family. This may mean turning down some invitations and setting aside an evening as family night. Make sure kids have regular opportunities to just hang out with family and friends.


4 Encourage free-range (not pre-pack- aged), natural and spontaneous play— like a sandbox in the backyard, blocks and impromptu neighborhood soccer games, instead of an amusement park, elaborate toys and soccer camp.


4 Make sure children also have total down time for lying in the grass looking at the sky, or sitting on the sidewalk sharing a stick of all-natural gum with a friend.


4 Show trust in giving youngsters some freedom. Choice is the hallmark of true play. Have confidence that when a child is off on his own and enjoying and direct- ing himself in activities he chooses, that is his “job”. The chances are that whatever innocent activities he’s doing of his own free will are better than any “enriching” activity we might impose on him.


natural awakenings July 2013 31 G


iven their prevalence today, it’s remarkable that video games have been in existence for just 40 years. What has evolved—children spending an average eight to nine sedentary hours per day in front of a video screen—was not part of the inventor’s plan. “It’s sad, in some re-


gards,” says Ralph H. Baer, “the father of video games” who introduced the rudimen- tary game of Pong in 1972. “I thought we would be helping families bond together in the living room; the opposite has happened.” For those of us that pine for the era


when our mothers would send us out- side in the morning with a sandwich in a bag and a canteen full of water—with orders not to come inside until dinner time—it’s gratifying to know an old-fash- ioned childhood need not be committed to memory. Games, the real ones played outdoors, are alive and well.


“One of the great things about the


games we played is that most of them are free, or one-time, lifetime purchases,” says actress Victoria Rowell, co-author of a book that offers an antidote to the video game revolution, Tag, Toss & Run: 40 Classic Lawn Games. Families can easily find the mak- ings for all sorts of outdoor family fun. Play tug-of-war with any sturdy rope, or take turns swinging two flexible ropes


Yard Games Memorable Family Fun


by Paul Tukey


for a spot of double Dutch, a game brought to New York City from Holland by early settlers. A large elastic band becomes a Chinese jump rope. Tree twigs or small branches work for stickball or double ball, a game played by native peoples on this continent hundreds of years before Jamestown or Plymouth Rock. Larger tree limbs can be cut into eight- to-10-inch sections for use in mölkky, a popular Finnish tossing contest that is gain-


ing favor here (move over corn hole). Several games only require a ball,


and many more don’t require any appa- ratus at all. Think of the copycat games such as Follow-the-Leader or Red Light/ Green Light, or the Hide ’n Seek games, Fox and Hound, Ghost in the Grave- yard and Capture the Flag. They offer as many variations on a theme as they do hours of exercise, communing with nature, conflict resolution and unstruc- tured, untallied play. We’ll never get all the way back to


the time when neighborhoods and the games we played were children’s only babysitters, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give it the old college try.


Paul Tukey is co-author of Tag, Toss & Run and founder of SafeLawns.org, which includes outdoor games resources.


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