Free Play and the Benefits

Here's an article from Preschool Matters. The article decries the loss of free play hours. Free play is the impetus of the developing child. In other words, it needs to be! We honor this at the GS and encourage children to engage in any number of choice driven play schemes. We try, in our small space, to allow for at least 50 or more activities the children can choose from a good part of their day. The teacher driven activities provide what we call, "how to" play, and that allows the children to take what they have learned into free play. It's amazing to watch children play school in the library and be us. "I think she's you, today," say the teachers frequently, laughing at someone the kids are copying. It's all great fun.

Anyway, here's a clip of the article:

In his book The Power of Play, David Elkind, professor of child development at Tufts University, writes that over the past two decades, children have lost 12 hours of free time a week and that eight hours of that is unstructured play and outdoor activities. While those figures don't necessarily apply to preschool children, they illustrate a trend that does. In a report on the importance of play in child development, published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kenneth Ginsburg concludes children who live in poverty as well as children with abundant resources may not be receiving the full benefits of play.

Ginsburg documents several trends that have resulted in less time for free play, including a decline in kindergarten classroom recess periods over the past two decades, passive entertainment such as television and computers that keep kids from engaging in free play, and a tendency for some parents to over-schedule structured activities.

He points out that when play is allowed to be child driven, children practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace and discover their own areas of interest. Such free play enables them to, in Ginsburg's words, "create a world they can master, conquering their fears while practicing adult roles." In the process, they develop new competencies that help them do such things as work in groups, share, negotiate, and resolve conflicts.

For more of the article, go HERE.