If you let them, they will play

Due to the long weekend, and the abundance of snow, we decided to host a sledding party for some of our friends.  The instructions were simple...bring your kids, your sleds and dress warmly.  While the temperature hovered around 15 degrees, the sun was shining brightly and there was no wind.  I wish I took pictures as the colors of the sleds and the parkas against the white snow and blue sky were striking.  After two hours of play in the snow, 7 kids, 7 adults and one Labrador retriever tromped inside for some hot chocolate and popcorn as the sun began to set over the western hill.

I am not a fan of the cold, but I find the combination of good friends and sunshine helps to bring me out of my shell.  More importantly, I find that given a wide open space and very little parental involvement, kids will play appropriately and learn valuable social skills, as well as hone their imaginations (oh, and have a good time).  In an era where everything has become so directed, imaginative play has become a lost art.  Kids are continually connected to a screen of some sort or another, or participating in structured lessons, sports or other activities where someone (or something) is telling them what to do and how to do it. Structure certainly has an important part in a kid's life, but not to the extent where there is no free time at all.  It is a good thing for a child to be "bored" as it forces him or her to figure out what to do with that time.  We find in our household that Bud will often want to "do" something with one of us. But if we're both busy, we send him off on his own.  Usually he ends up deciding to read his novel (currently, the Nicholas Flamel series) or coming up with some sort of game in his room to play with his guys (the Fisher Price castle  and figures Santa brought him when he was 3 and other assorted cars, trucks and blocks that he has accumulated over his short 8 years of life).  Wendy Mogel discusses children and boredom in her book, The Blessing of A Skinned Knee: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children. 

One of the party-goers who also homesteads mentioned that her family often has a fossil-fuel free day, which requires the children to think creatively about how to spend their time without going into town.  If we as parents hunker down and don't cave in to the constant bombarding of "Can I play on the computer?, Can I watch a video?" etc., the kids will retreat and start some activity or other on their own.  If we let them, they will play.  Albert Einstein once said, "imagination is more important than knowledge".   One of my colleagues who teaches sixth grade actually has this quotation painted above her windows in her classroom.  Many may question this idea, but without imagination, there is no pursuit of knowledge.  If kids are trained to just google the answers to any questions they have, or ask a teacher or parent who will just give them the answer, then the creative mind within them withers.  We, as adults, need to foster the sense of self-reliance by letting the kids make mistakes, be bored, get into arguments with their peers, and create their own entertainment.  It's not neat and it's certainly not quiet, and it may be a little scary, but it's good, just like sledding down a big hill (with jumps) on a sunny January afternoon.