The Value of PLAY - even after early childhood! - A Parenting Post

“When we treat children's play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that's to be found in the creative spirit. It's the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.” 
― Fred Rogers

Thank goodness for George School Children's Center in Newtown, PA, a Friends school where I worked for the three years prior to being pregnant with my first child & moving back to Maine!  The timing of my time there was perfect for preparing me for motherhood and the preschool years.  I learned about play-based learning & I then tried my best to duplicate that in my little home.  

Much can be said about the benefits of PLAY,

   how present-day kids don't get enough of it,

       how too-busy schedules & helicopter moms & electronics are taking kids away from free play.

Studies have been done & books have been written...  

I believe in PLAY!!  

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.

-Fred Rogers

Play regulates our behavior & gives us self esteem and it is the "work of childhood."

But sometimes we forget that the "big kids" need PLAY too.  

They need unstructured time.  

     Time to be bored.

           Time to explore & to create & to feel.

This afternoon was a beautiful example of PLAY, here, at our house, in spite of a rough start to the afternoon & some sibling quarrels & such...

The kids, (by the way - they are 10, 12 & 13 & not too old for play! - don't confuse innocence with immaturity!), so-the kids decided they would "make salads", a "game" they used to play a lot when they were younger.  Collect various things found outside & "make" a "salad".  Well, I must say, the plating has certainly become quite professional!!  At the end of making their salads, the kids wanted me to come and see and they wanted to present their dishes to me.  I asked Noelle what her inspiration was and she said, "Boredom!"  :)

 Micah collected all his items & wanted to show me what he had found.

Sometimes Clara needs to be shoved out of the way!  Or - sometimes Clara starts eating the salads!

 What a great idea!  Hollow out a cucumber!

 Play is serious work!

 Kind of a cool mushroom that Micah found.

At the point of me going back in to make dinner, this was Micah's dish.  He was done & the girls were far from done!  The salads kept evolving & evolving & much like on food shows, they gained ideas from each other!  I was surprised to see that Micah's dish now looked like this:

 D's beautiful dishes!!  

 13 year old D's "presentation"  Sweet!

 10 year old Micah's presentation.

 12 year old Noelle's presentation.

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 Noelle's salad.  I broke the big rule of free play & I rushed her.  (If you have a Noelle, perhaps you will give me grace!)  I wanted us to eat dinner & I rushed her so she spilled her apple dish & kind of had to make do.

She's a minimalist!  

So that is play.

And that is nature.

And they are not too old.

And it was not about the product, (because they enjoyed chucking the salads - their idea - right       after they presented them!

It was about the creative process.

There is SO much to be learned through play.