Kids who spend an average of 3 to 7 hours a day on electronic devices are missing out on rich childhood experiences that were common just a few decades ago. While tech lures kids into a sedentary lifestyle and passive mental state, play promotes an active body and mind. In this post, I’ve got the full scoop on free play for kids—why it’s so important, what exactly it looks like, and how to incorporate more of it into your child’s days.
Recently, I observed my preschooler come up with a genius idea. She took a dog leash, strapped one end to a window blind and the other to a door knob. Then, she used some clips to hang random things on the rope and placed a laundry basket beneath it all.
In her mind, she was Ma from Little House On The Prairie, hanging the wash out to dry on a warm summer day. Although my preschooler has plenty of store bought toys, she was fully content to transform simple items we already own into play tools for her vivid imagination. Kids are incredible this way. Play is their work!
What is free play?
Free play occurs when our kids are given the time, space, and freedom to make their own fun organically. During this type of recreation, children make up their own games. They dream up scenes to act out. They create their own characters. Using their imaginations, they turn everyday objects into props to suit their play.
Unlike the kind of recreation that happens during a session of video games that has an exact right way to win, unstructured play happens when there is no how-to guide for how to play. Without expectations, instructions, or time constraints, kids thrive in creative play.
During unrestrained play, kids are allowed to be creative, inventive, and spontaneous.
I talk more about unstructured play in the following post:
How To Get Kids To Play
- Prioritize play in the same way that you would chores, homework, and extracurricular activities. Make space for it each day. Give your kids extra hours to simply be kids during evenings and weekends.
- Remove screen time as an option. Too much time on electronic devices hinders a child’s ability to entertain themselves. Put devices away most days and observe as your children create their own fun.
- Read your children picture books that encourage imaginative play. Some of our favorites are Home in the Woods by Eliza Wheeler, Christina Katerina and the Box by Patricia Lee Gauch, Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran, and Flora’s Tree House by Gabriel Alborozo.
- Provide simple supplies to ignite your child’s imagination such as walkie talkies, rope, baskets, buckets, small pails, bungee cords, boxes, a looking glass, binoculars, costumes, dolls, superheroes, horses, Army men, and sticky men.
- Get your kids outside in all types of weather and seasons. Let them splash in the summer, jump in piles of leaves in the autumn, make snow angels in the winter, and stomp through puddles in the spring. Don’t be afraid of imperfect weather. Dress your child appropriately and let them have fun!
Free Play Examples
Example # 1
Recently, during an afternoon of recreation, three of my children came up with their own game called “rounding horse.” Two of them at a time jumped on the trampoline, each holding an end of a long rope. One child would gallop like a horse and the other child would reign them in.
There were nuanced rules and roles within this game that my children established on their own. I did not interfere. I simply gave them time and space to play and observed with delight from the sidelines. My kids had a blast taking on various personas and negotiating the protocols of “rounding horse” together.
This was a session of uninhibited play at its finest. My children entertained themselves for several days with this inventive game.
Grab my free printable Screen Free Family Bingo to unplug from the virtual world and plug in to what truly matters:
Example # 2
Another example of free play I recently observed among my children happened in our backyard among a pile of sticks, old kitchen bowls, and miscellaneous supplies from nature. My dad laid in one of our hammocks and sharpened twigs. The kids decided he would be a spear maker and that his spears would be a coveted possession in their make believe economy.
The children bartered with Pop Pop over real and imaginary objects. My oldest daughter deemed herself a basket weaver. She gathered leaves and braided them together. One of my sons became the imaginary fire starter and resident builder. The kids traded their skills and products for their grandfather’s spears.
This went on for hours.
Typically, free play happens among children, but my dad is one of my kids’ very best playmates. He has the unique ability to relax into their play without imposing his own rules or regulations. His imagination is just as big as theirs. They can sense that when he engages with them, he is not checking the clock or trying to squash their fun. Pop Pop lets the kids take the lead, but adds fun twists with his own vivid imagination. He enjoys adventures just as much as they do.
What does play look like in childhood?
- Kids make a pretend ice cream stand and serve each other between the gap of a tree.
- A preschooler turns a large box into a spaceship, a shelter, a step stool, and boat in the course of their time playing outdoors.
- Kids pretend to gallop on horses through the yard using long sticks, brooms, or imaginary props.
- Kids pretend to be pirates and use a picnic table as their plank. The grass becomes their sea as they jump off the plank to a certain (imaginary) death at the hands of a rogue pirate with a stick sword.
- Kids pretend to be spies on a mission. They hide behind bushes and take cover behind large rocks.
- Kids climb a tree and use an old paper towel roll as a looking glass. They pretend to be lighthouse keepers and look out for lost ships full of stolen goods.
- Kids dress up in play costumes and take on imaginary personas. They use various accents and make up languages for their own pretend world.
Indoor Play
High quality play for kids can also occur indoors with open ended toys. When a boy meticulously lines his bedroom with miniature army men, police officers, firefighters, and superheroes, he is writing a story with his mind. Under his bed becomes the cave for search and rescue. His tall wooden dresser becomes a mountain that the heroes must scale. The carpet on his floor becomes a puddle of lava for his toys to avoid.
Another example of creative indoor play is example is when a little girl gets out all of her horses and barbies. She makes a pretend stable out of popsicle sticks. She lays out squares of green felt and a blue kitchen towel to make grass and a river for her horses to cross. She wears her own cowgirl hat and boots and takes on the persona of her Jessie doll. She alternates between galloping across the living room with a stick and trotting her plastic horses down to the lake for a drink. So much creativity is taking place in this young girl’s mind.
Free play for kids happens indoors and outdoors. The most important ingredient is a child’s imagination.
Benefits of Physical Play vs. Screen Time
Kids who get lots of daily opportunities to play are more resilient, strong, creative, independent, and content than kids who are overly restricted, given excessive screen time, and not allowed to freely explore outdoors. Physical outdoor play helps kids develop strength, grow in endurance, cultivate patience and simply have fun.
Give your children plenty of time, space, and supplies for free play if you want them to become…
- Problem solvers
- Critical thinkers
- Independent learners
- Well-adjusted individuals
- Creators instead of consumers
Benefits of Play Based Learning
We know in our hearts that not all education takes place within the four walls of a classroom and yet, most young children are inside of a classroom for 7 hours a day five days a week. After traditional school hours, these same kids are hustled to and from extracurricular activities and then plopped in front of screens for downtime. Where is the space for play?
Kids were meant to move, play, and imagine. Childhood is a time for exploration and simple fun. Kids who are gifted the time and space to simply be kids and engage in free play have an advantage over their over scheduled peers.
Kids learn more about science through digging in the dirt, examining a worm, checking on a caterpillar’s chrysalis, and chasing a butterfly than they do from a textbook that merely shows pictures of these types of things.
As they freely explore outside through the seasons, children do so much play based learning. This past year alone, my children learned about the life cycle as they…
- Planted, weeded, and watered a garden in the summer
- Gathered dead leaves for pretend soup in the late fall
- Played make believe beneath bare trees in the winter
- Created an imaginary shop with freshly bloomed flowers in the spring
Benefits of Messy Play
I don’t know many mamas who love the idea of bits of play dough raining down from their preschooler’s hands into the cracks of the couch cushions, streaks of slime on their carpet, specks of sand all over their car, or a slew of children tracking rain and mud inside after an afternoon of play. Screens have offered a very clean and organized alternative to traditional messy play, but this has come at high cost to our kids. Messy play matters. Kids were not meant to live in a bubble with a remote or a video game controller. They were meant to explore creation.
Tips Encourage Play And How To Not Get Stressed About The Mess
Here are some simple ways your kid can engage in messy play instead of screen time…
- Let your kids do messy activities outdoors such as painting, conducting age appropriate science experiments, and molding with play dough or clay. Set them up with a tarp or picnic blanket beneath a nice tree and allow them to create.
- Lay a stomp mat outside of your door and towels on the floor your kids will come into contact with after outdoor play. Give them freedom to dig in the mud, run through the sprinkler, splash in puddles, and jump in piles of leaves. Teach them to take off their dirty shoes and tidy up at the designated spot when they come inside.
- Make memories with your kids at the beach whenever you can. Beach trips were my favorite growing up. I used to go boogie-boarding for hours with my dad and then lay in the sun and enjoy snacks. Needless to say, these days were full of mess. On the walk back to the hotel, I would be hot, sweaty, and covered in sand. We would stop at an ice cold sprinkler to clean off before going into an even colder hotel. This part of the process was not fun, but I wouldn’t trade those messy beach memories for the world.
- As always, limit screen time for your kids. We as parents have the power to make changes in our children’s schedules in order to accommodate lots of outdoor exploration.
How To Get More Free Play In Your Child’s Schedule
Incorporating more free play into your child’s schedule can be as simple as reducing screen time, limiting time consuming extracurricular activities, and requiring outdoor exploration on a daily basis. We don’t have to overcomplicate this as parents. The point of recreation is that kids would initiate it themselves and enjoy it. Children are incredibly creative. They just need the time, space, and freedom to create.
Kids who are not used to entertaining themselves may need a little help getting started. If your kids are used to excessive screen time, try a digital detox. Stash the devices in a closet for a week or two and get outdoors with your children a couple times a day after each meal. Make outside a pleasant place by providing snacks and strewing simple supplies (like baskets and bubbles).
Start acting out a story and encourage your kids to finish it. Pretend to be a character from a different period in history and as your kids start to play along, let them take the game in whatever direction they choose. Invite friends over for an afternoon of screen free fun in your backyard.
The more you get your kids outside and give them space, the more they will develop the creative skills to play. Your most important role is as a facilitator. Be consistent in restricting screen time and requiring independent play. You will be gifting your kids the golden stuff of a screen free childhood.
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