Let Them Play!

In a review of The Rights of the Reader by Daniel Pennac. Roger Sutton of the Horn Book quotes Pennac as saying, among other things "Worried that a lack of scheduled activities will lead your kid to boredom? But being bored is great."

(Click here for the review.)

I so agree. Being bored is actually a gift -- if your time isn't always filled with someone else entertaining you or constantly being drilled with new facts, then you can use that "boring" time to put your imagination to work, something I think we all need more time to do, young and old.

I am against scheduling your child within an inch of his life. I am all for lazy summer days spent running around in backyards, climbing trees and riding bikes. Throwing tennis balls against the wall and trying to figure out how to play jump rope when you only have two people. Cutting "paper dolls" out of catalogs and creating Barbie houses with odds and ends from around the house (I always liked setting up the house so much more than actually playing with the dolls).

Scheduled activities might seem to give your child a more impressive "resume", but I think some really great learning still happens organically. Kids are curious about their world. They are little scientists. That is, when they aren't being sucked in by video games and (oops, I'm guilty of this myself), television. Those are things, sorry to say, that are actually thinking for you, and all too often, not letting you think for yourself.

I also know that scheduled activities seem so much safer -- I can't imagine letting my little girl run around and explore the outdoors unsupervised as much as I did. And honestly, the fact that I'm too scared to let her do that makes me sad. I know that she'll be missing out. I may have been bored at the outset, but I'm glad for having ridden my bike down my street as fast as I could, even though I ended up falling over the handlebars of my bike, making snow angels and exploring the quiet after a snowstorm, including knocking down icicles (dangerous! You'll knock your eye out, kid!) or eating snow (dirty!) or putting on musicals for the neighbors and my family, even if we looked a little silly, laying out on the front lawn finding dragons in clouds, or trying to make mudpies because I read about it in a book. But if I hadn't, I wouldn't have these stories to tell, now would I?

More on the benefits of play and letting kids be. "Are You Turning Your Child Into A Wimp?"Time.com, June 23, 2008