Play on Streets

Six hours of school. Followed by an activity or two, and a game or tournament on weekends. A quick guess!  Yes this is true for 90% of our children.

The only inevitable thing on our earth throughout the generations is change.  We witnessed our childhoods, we heard our parents’ childhood stories and here we are practically main part and parcel of our children’s overall development. I am sure everyone has heard from many of our parent’s generation that when they were kids, they played outside all day and returned home only when street lights were on. Well it was a bit different in our generation.  Come from school, help mom, finish homework and go out to play. We grew up picking berries, riding bikes; skip rope and other countless games in packs. Not to mention internal fights too and compromises thereafter.  We didn’t have many extra classes for competitive sports. But what I witness with our children is that they are as busy as a CEO. Their calendar is Jam packed with activities and events. This leads to very less time for them to play as a pack or play outside at all. Only chosen company would be a WII, tablet, computer games or any other electronic device. This has become truth of most of the countries.

“Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities” says Stuart Brown, MD
Contemporary American psychiatrist

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity”, thinks Kay Redfield Jamison Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

Does that mean any kind of play serves the purpose? There are two types of play. One is structured and another is unstructured. Structured play is the one which is designed by adults with the intention to develop certain sets of skills in children. While unstructured play is solely designed and created by children, using their own imagination and creativity.

All the games like chess, checkers, other board games, computer games or games in any other electronic device would be all classified as structured games. I adore many of those including some web games where they learn to paint and learn numbers in a fun way and also higher mathematics as a fun game. One of our favorites used to be http://www.sesamestreet.org games and http://www.starfall.com for early childhood educations. Latest with my preteen is http://www.coolmath-games.com . I love her playing on these sites. They take care of children’s need starting from their eye hand co-ordination to learning new things in a fun and playful way. These are all so educative.  So what is the big fuss about unstructured play?

Well, the knowledge of the world that we are equipped with is new for children. I remember my 5 year old brother was so fond of shaving with my dad! He loved to put shaving cream on his cheeks and wash it away. That was certainly a play for him at that time but he was learning a certain social skill! We talk about leadership qualities in people. Where does that come from? It doesn’t come from structured play for sure, even if they play in a group. The rules of those games are designed by adults. Children are just learning to follow instructions well.

The fact that sparks interest is their creativity in designing their own games. As a teacher, it always amazes me to watch children free play using their imagination. I was at the art table assisting children with their painting. I just asked Jeremiah about his work. I knew he was playing with animals before coming to the art table. He explained that he was making an elevator which is solar powered and it is in a jungle to lift animals to some imaginary building! It was thrilling to see him actually try to make his imagination come true using blocks. I remember my daughter’s favourite play was to put chairs in a circle, cover it with a blanket and make a tent out of it. She loved to play with her friends in their self-made tent. Hang sign board outside and go shopping etc. If I go in past, we used to go out and covered outdoor parallel exercise bars with leaves, decorate our house with some nice flowers and play inside. Both the plays, there is one with the whole idea but there are different inputs too. Am sure arguments and settlements are part and parcel of it. Didn’t that teach problem solving? Children watch the world around them and then practice what they liked the most. That practice is named as play for them. Children play with toy kitchen and kitchen equipment, or they decide how to race their bikes, they play skipping rope in an innovative way or they play chef when guests arrive for dinner. This is all unstructured play but a serious learning business.

Does that mean all technology is structured play? I would beg to differ. There are some smart programs or apps made to satisfy children’s creativity. Stop motion and Claymation are examples of those. My daughter was always fantasized by cartoons and making one by herself. I wanted to introduce her to Macromedia Flash and Adobe Photoshop etc. There were two hitches in it. One was to spend money on software and another was the insecurity of her being bored of it after a while. But now that schools have started using iPad, she could use stop motion at school and satisfy her creativity. She was gifted with Claymation Studio and made wonderful animations out of it. Even giving sounds! Now she is enriched with a feeling that she can step a bit in grownup shoes too.

Well, I would like to conclude here with a childhood song, “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy and all play and no work make Jack a mere toy”. Same Philosophy applies in our child development as well. No doubt we make their calendars full with activities and events; we have to give them some time to play. Both structured as well as unstructured. I would like to take a rest here with the lines of great Greek Philosopher, Plato “Do not…keep children to their studies by compulsion but by play.” What’s your say?