What consequences can children have to stop playing to occupy their (precious) free time with directed activities? When did the children stop playing? This and other questions serve as a reflection in the book "Free Game. Source of happiness", written by Carmen Cabrera, who has launched a Crowfundig campaign in Verkami to get it edited.
But the book is much more because far from selling some method or tracing strategies to follow, it "opens our minds and hearts" (if we are willing to do so), and It helps us to get to know the children's world better; although I would say that it rather guides us on the path of remembrance, that which leads us to our own childhood, the one we had forgotten in some corner of the mind. Because as Antoine de Saint - Exupery says "The Little Prince": "All the elderly have been children first. (But few remember it)."
I have other questions to add to Carmen's reflections. Is it because we don't remember how she feels freedom, the absence of adult control in games, the joy of sharing and growing up with others,… because we make free play difficult of our children ?, and even more Are we in time to let them be happy playing without having to write "play from 17 to 17.30" on their agendas "?
When Carmen has managed to edit this book, it will be a must read for those of us who trust childhood, for those of us who believe that an afternoon of free play is more important than an introductory course in Chinese, learn to stand on tiptoe in ballet class, or learn new strategies to win chess.
I agree with her on many things, but I would like to highlight (among them) that now is the time (despite economic crises, ideas, values ...) that we all accept profound changes in our ways of thinking and being , that we generate a movement towards a constructive coexistence. It is time to get to know each other better and relax tensions ... it is also the time to "recover the free game" so that we all enjoy it, and thus avoid being forgotten
Do you know what free play is?
Well, this is the most pleasant activity we did in childhood, and to which we dedicated so many hours, interrupting him only for our school attendance, but what do you say to me! Don't you remember it?
Then I will have to explain myself more: "Free play is a voluntary activity in which nobody is forced to do what they do not want. Participants are the ones who decide the limitations of space and time, sometimes beforehand and sometimes during the course of the action. Above all, free play is an activity without objectives or goals, it has no purpose. Free play is a spontaneous activity that has the end in itself. It produces pleasure and the participants become directors, actors and producers of their own reality. Everyone accepts the rules that are established and are free to change them by prior agreement or to leave the game at the time they decide. "
Although conventional pedagogies have largely rejected the use of free play (to which they erroneously attributed lack of pedagogical value), The new trends in pedagogy again give greater prominence to the game and experimentation This is because "it is a fundamental activity for the integral and healthy development of the child, both cognitively and emotionally and socially. In the game, many values and knowledge are learned through direct experiences, as well as physical abilities and skills ".
Know that although we must recover the free game for children, we can all participate in it because it is not exclusive, yes: before we forget about interruptions, hurries; and we will remember the intensity of childhood nonchalance, and the richness of relationships through play.
In the Free Game blog you can find "the keys of the non-directed game", which are voluntariness, lack of purpose, pleasure, social cohesion, satisfaction, social skills and values. The document contains expanded (and very useful) information about all of them.
Finally I leave you with a gift: a few days ago a photo contest on Free Game was launched, so that one of them will constitute the back cover of the book, after the action, those responsible for the crowfundig project have produced a video with all the participating photographs. To say that they are beautiful images, full of life and joy, that is to say little. Judge for yourselves.
