Have a play day!

Play, in my opinion is underrated. I believe if you watch your children free play from a safe distance, (so they don't know you are watching), you will see my point.

I am defining free play as the time when children are playing without any direction from an adult, not a sport, or an established game, but a time when they are free to play in anyway they desire. When this happens amazing growth is happening with your child.

Problem solving....seems like many "experts" are talking about problem solving these days and the need for schools to teach children how to problem solve. I disagree. When a child is taught how to problem solve, then they aren't really problem solving, but simply following another's example. When children are allowed to free play without any interference from adults they develop true problem solving skills. As they build, create and discover, they make modifications to help change their "play" into something more meaningful. In today's society, children are learning that problems need to be solved instantly. If a child is having troubles problem solving in their free play it is ok to give them a small amount of guidance, but be careful that you don't start problem solving for them. For example, if your child wants to modify his creation so that he can pull it across the floor, help him think of a variety of ways that this might be accomplished and then let them discover what works best on their own. The phrase, "what can you do about that?" is a common one in our home. When a child comes to us with a problem solving issue, that is neither severe nor life threatening, you will often hear us say something like, "how frustrating, what do you think you can do to change it?" We want the child to know that we have heard their concern, but also want to encourage them to tackle this problem on their own.

When children wrestle or engage in more physical play, they learn about their own strength and how that strength can impact those around them. One does not know that it hurts when you hit someone until that person tells you. I am amazed at our almost 3 year old. He and his 6 year old brother wrestle all the time. (It actually drives me nuts :-) I always feel they are playing too rough. However, you should see our little guy with babies! He is so gentle. He has learned at this young age when it is appropriate to play rough and when it is necessary to play gentle. If we didn't allow the boys to free play in a rough way, we would still be trying to teach him. (It took our older son much longer to learn this concept because he didn't have any other boys to wrestle with, and the girls weren't interested.)

These are just two great benefits of free play. If you do your own research you will find lots of studies on play and how it helps children develop. Play is really a vital part of development. Here are some other great benefits I have found in my research:
-building skills    
-social skills
-emotional skills
-language skills (key component of reading comprehension)
-thinking skills (a component of problem solving)
-nurturing skills (a form of empathy)
-imagination skills (key component of reading comprehension)

-loosing gracefully (a form of empathy)

-putting others before you (a form of empathy)

-compromise 

-sharing

-creativity

-self entertainment/ intrinsic motivation (great for building resistance to peer pressure)
-delayed gratification

If you have read my blog a few times over the years, you know that we have chosen to educate most of our children at home. It works great for us, but I do know that the choice isn't best for everyone. However,  wether your family chooses to educate at home or somewhere else, let me encourage you today to take some time to play. Play is something that is vanishing in our public schools (just look at our Kindergarten rooms) and really in the American society all together. It is a very sad thing to see. I predict that we will regret this trend.

Go have fun and let your children learn today through play :-)