Spontaneous play leads to making robots and discovering atoms!

Creativity and imagination are a healthy component to life, unfortunately it isn't flourishing as it should. When a child's day is full, meaning every hour has a booked activity, there leaves very little time for spontaneous play which in turns reduces the opportunity for imaginative play.

Kim over at "A Girl and a Glue Gun" gave her 4 children a chance to stimulate their brain cells when she dumped a bagful of opportunity on the floor with a roll or two of duc tape. To the untrained eye it looked like she hijacked the recycling bin, but her children thought otherwise and created some really great 'robots'. I don't know if she gave suggestions to start from, but that is alright because creative moments come from inspiration, be them verbal or visual. (as evident by the popularity of 'linky' parties among adult crafters). No two robots are identical, the same 'stuff' was used but they organized it the way they saw fit. You can see their creations here (I hope): http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/2011/01/take-me-to-your-leader.html

I could write a bunch of stuff about how creativity and imagination is being stifled with colouring pages/books and uninformed cruel teachers telling kids they coloured something wrong, but I'm only going to quote Virginia M. Axline, a pioneer in play therapy. She wrote this in 1947: during "play therapy hour the child is given the opportunity to realize this power within himself to be himself". She also said (among lots of great stuff) "his free play is an expression of what he wants to do...experiencing a period of independent thought and action".

People learn so much about themselves and the world when they are free to explore it on their terms. Giving the kids a bag of discards gives them an opportunity to do that in a safe environment. Who knows, one of Kim's kids could be a brilliant engineer one day and develops a no-burn glue gun!

Einstein had some things to say about intelligence and creativity: "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination". "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge". And we know what Einstein could do don't we? (he also said something about becoming a watchmaker if he had known that the atom wouldn't change people's thinking).

I have a pad of newsprint under my couch and crayons for my grandson to occupy himself while the grownups do whatever grownups do. He's almost 2 1/2 here. (I don't have permission from his parents so you only get to see his cute head)

Let's colour outside of the lines...free our inner selves!

Children have the right to play

It is so sad that there are children who are not allowed to play freely. In western society many children (too many) are denied the opportunity to discover the joy of just playing. In schools recesses are being cut or cancelled then parents/caregivers are picking up the children from the school sidewalks and often driving them to organized sporting teams. One could argue that competing on those team sports is playing, yes, it is, but it is directed by adults and rules are enforced by adults. What are the kids learning? That adults make the rules and that they (the children) can follow directions. While many good things are learned and experienced through organized sports, that shouldn't be the only exposure to play that a child should have.
When children organize their own games they learn co-operation, negotiation, compromise, leadership skills, organizational skills and having fun for the sake of having fun without an adult telling them what to do, or hovering. Hmmm sounds like the same skills that organized sports boast, yet for less money and travel time!
I can't remember which group did this experiment but it was fascinating. They took a group of kids who were members of a organized basketball team and had them organize themselves on the official court inside the gym and then outside on the asphalt play area. Inside, the leader  was the team captain and the boys played their usual spots. Outside, they organized themselves differently. The ones who took charge were the ones who were quiet followers. This shows that if a child has only one type of play activity there are children who would lose out on opportunities that could develop leadership associated skills. Sooooo, let children organize themselves, let them make mistakes. It isn't like they're going to ruin their chances to be a successful athlete if they don't practice, practice, practice in only official situations.