Fascinating article about play.....

[astrid]

Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514)

I"m interested in your thoughts.

[Lorna]

My twelve year old still plays with her farm toys and brick building. I am sure it has made them the calm, pleasant children they are. I know that their cousins really relish their company because they have so many ideas on how to entertain themselves. It is a real relief especially for their cousin whose life consists of a rather frightening bus ride to school (where other children have pulled knives on him), coming home to an empty home and homework and the weekend in front of the tv or computer and yet more homework. Our children take him out into the garden, make houses and play fantasy games.

[Rebecca in GA]

Thanks for posting this!

[8FillTheHeart]

I didn't read the entire article, but skimmed the beginning. It definitely is a foundational belief of mine. When I was in college, my undergraduate research was on the impact of imaginative play on brain development. All the research I read confirmed that imaginative play (dress-ups, building, playing house, playing dolls.....where the child was creating the entertainment, not the toy entertaining them) had a higher impact on brain development than "educational instruction" during the pre-school yrs.

I have absolutely incorporated that philosophy into our home and life in general. Our toys (and we have tons) are all child dependent toys (with the exception of Baby Alive whom I detest). I also do no formal instruction prior to K. Play leads to higher cognitve skills. I would much rather them playing and building those brain paths than sitting and repeating abcs and numbers. :)

[Jean in Newcastle]

I was a nanny right after college. My two charges (3 and 5), as well as their neighborhood playmates, didn't know how to play! What they called "play" was a choreographed script that they had basically memorized from the television. I spent months teaching those kids how to really play pirates, knights, spies. . . Fortunately I don't have to teach my own kids!

[Patty Joanna]

If this is so, my son will RULE THE WORLD!!!! BWAHAHAHA!

I needed this article today. I just keep repeating: It is true. It is true. Playing non-stop without end night and day eternally now and forever amen is a GOOD THING!

(Who needs math?)

[AndyJoy]

My sister and I were very imaginative in our play, constructing ongoing alternate identities for ourselves that spanned years of our lives. Even when we were 12 and 10, we would come home after school and enter one of our imaginary worlds while eating our snack and doing our chores together. When friends came over to play, we invited them into our world and astonished them with how much fun we could have without TV!

As a teen, I would help my babysitting charges enter the world of imagination. I thought it was "lame" to get paid for plopping the kids in front of the TV, even they were used to watching a couple of hours of TV each night. Thus, I ignored the TV when I babysat, and they never missed it once I got their imaginations going! Both boys and girls would beg to have me sit for them because they liked my "dress up games."

I have seen a severe lack of both self-regulation and imagination in the jr. high students I teach. It is interesting to find that the two are related, but it makes sense. If you are always looking for an external stimulus for entertainment or to tell you what to do to not be bored (parents, TV, video games, organized sports, etc.) it makes sense that you will look to external sources for feedback about behavior rather than solving problems yourself.

[GreenKitty]

Thanks for posting the article. :) I like to play too!

[nancypants]

Great article!! I completely agree with it!