In an interview with an Argentine newspaper called "La Voz", Francesco Tonucci literally says that "The verb play only conjugates with the verb leave". Or what is the same, playing accompanied by adults is a situation that sometimes borders on the absurd and invented for a few years.
In part I am right, although the attempts of many fathers and mothers to get involved in their children's games (in the park, during that mountain excursion, etc.) are commendable ...
The point is that we seem to have forgotten the happiness of climbing a tree, the emotion of knowing that no adult will listen to your confidences, the satisfaction that among all the friends you have resolved a conflict, the fright that happens when a friend falls from the bicycle getting a big wound in the knee (situation that in most of the occasions it is successfully resolved).
Let's not forget that freedom to play, so that they are displaced alone by the surroundings, is not incompatible with family life, with good school performance.
The game is very important in the life of a child, the "free game" is also an inexhaustible source of experiences and learning, which helps in the child's maturation
Play versus toys
Make constructions, play an online game, organize a party with the little dolls in the room, play hide and seek, make imaginary battles between the trees, everything is game. But more toys do not give the same advantages as free play, it's about adding, not interfering with getting used to a new object every month, but instead denying what is yours by right.
Besides the game in freedom, sometimes it can be an antidote against the so-called “Nature Deficit Disorder”, which seems to appear in the lives of hundreds of children today.
They are bored?
I fear that there are several factors that may be helping children learn to address us with that dreaded "I get bored". On the one hand an excess of technology (it is good, it may even be necessary for its future, but all in its right measure), inhibits the ability to appreciate other options.
On the other hand one 'generation' of parents worried about taking them to workshops, activities, to schedule their time, to satisfy supposed desires, ... it is normal that when there is 'nothing to do' they get bored (with that of things that there really are to do).
Your childhood will not be more magical for those themed parties you organize every year, or for those exhibition crafts that you all sit down to do on Saturday afternoons. It will be because they can be real children, living the experiences of age.
We would not go wrong if we put into practice in matters of children's play a little “Laissez faire”: allow your children to come and go with their friends, do not tell them if the slide or swing is better, do not be overwhelmed if you do not tell what they have talked about in their secret cabin. Trust them and they will be more autonomous, allow them those experiences only possible during childhood and you will give them tools to take risks, face disappointments and overcome obstacles.
They need you to shelter them and feed them, also to protect them (and teach them to do so) against “real” dangers, you don't need them while they play... if you think that is the case, you may be interfering with their 'natural' development.
Show yourself willing to listen to them, set basic rules at home, prepare family outings, accept challenges such as playing board games or with the console with them when they ask, but if they can and want to open the door and go out to that world unknown to them , allow it - to the extent of your possibilities and the facilities of the environment, of course -.
Images | , island_yelo Via | La Voz, Huffington Post On Peques and More | Do we help children to recover their spaces in cities? 'We can change our lifestyle if we consider it, giving children a healthy life'. Interview with Soledad Román
