If you long for your kids to have less screen time and more play time, this post is for you. Let’s chat about how to encourage unstructured play for your kids, the benefits of unstructured play, the problem with screen time, and unstructured play examples.
What is unstructured play?
Unstructured play is when adults take a backseat and allow kids to make their own fun. During imaginative play, kids get inventive, exercise creativity, and entertain themselves. This type of play for kids occurs naturally outdoors with siblings and peers when parents do not interfere.
Although the term is called “unstructured” this simply means that adults don’t tell the kids how to play such as they would during a board game or on an organized sports team. Instead of providing video games that have a clear objective and way to win, we can allow our kids to establish their own guidelines during imaginative play in nature. Children will often come up with their own “structure” in the creative games they invent during free play.
Encourage Play for Kids By
- Including outdoor free play as a nonnegotiable in your child’s daily routine
- Removing screen time as an option during daily unstructured play time
- Inviting friends over for your kids to play outdoors with on a regular basis
- Not interfering with the imaginative games your kids come up with
- Commending your kids for their creativity and the cool things they come up with
- Doing a family digital detox from electronics in order to increase your child’s appetite for free play
Unstructured Play Examples:
- Kids freely exploring outdoors
- Kids climbing trees and navigating the forest
- Kids building forts on their own
- Kids creating and crafting with old scraps
- Kids acting out make believe scenes inspired by their own imaginations
- Kids constructing their own unique creations from natural materials outside
- Kids playing in an outdoor mud kitchen and pretending to bake or stir soup
- Kids playing with open ended toys without any rules or guidelines
- Kids making up their own games with their siblings and peers
Screen Time Hinders Imaginative Play
Does your child expect to be entertained around the clock by either you or a screen? If so, you are not alone.
As a mom of lots of littles, I know how frustrating it can be when kids struggle to play independently and you have things you need to get done. One of the biggest parenting issues many of us face today is that the technology kids of this generation expect an endless stream of entertainment.
Children have grown so used to the quick transitions, endless streaming, bottomless scrolling, and on-demand virtual options from screens that they lack the drive to create their own fun the way most kids did just a few decades ago.
Excessive screen time has stifled the creativity, attention span, and appetite for unstructured play in many young children.
Thankfully, there are solutions to this parenting problem!
We know that free time for recreation is essential for children. Specifically unstructured outdoor exploration. Unstructured play aids in healthy childhood development.
Play is the natural work of childhood and our kids’ brains and bodies benefit from lots of it.
Encouraging unstructured play is one of our most important jobs as parents of little ones. Make sure not to over schedule your young children. Children today are expected to juggle a lot academically, socially, and in extracurricular activities. Try to offer your kids a more slow paced childhood in which there is plenty of time and space for outdoor play.
Unstructured Play Example From Real Life
I witnessed an epic unstructured play example the other day in our backyard.
My son had gotten a small toy jeep on a recent vacation. He and his siblings had used an orange wheel barrow, some PVC piping, cinder blocks, and a few wooden boards to make an incredible ramp for his jeep to cruise through.
I was so impressed.
The kids entertained themselves for long stretches of time taking turns pushing that one jeep through their homemade ramp.
Unstructured play doesn’t mean that no order will occur. It means that the children make the rules.
My kids gathered materials and tried many variations of their ramp until they came up with the perfect structure for the jeep to fly down.
Unstructured play implies that adults step back and allow children to lead the fun. Although it is essential to teach and guide our children in the way they should go in many aspects of life, play is different. We need to give our kids opportunities to figure things out for themselves through play instead of always providing an app on a smartphone, a board game with specific instructions, or an organized sports league that has set parameters for exactly how kids must play.
When it comes to unstructured play, kids are the teachers, architects, engineers, and executers of the enjoyment.
Benefits of Play for Children
The role of play in child development is critical. When kids are required to make their own fun without screens, they learn how to be critical thinkers.
Kids’ boredom decreases as their creativity increases.
Daily independent play is an excellent way to decrease screen time for children. As kids come to love and embrace free play, they will naturally require less entertainment from parents and screens.
Kids who do a lot of unstructured outdoor play know how to entertain themselves.
Kids who frequently play come up with creative solutions to solve problems. Take, for instance, a younger sibling that wants to scale the tree in the backyard just like their big sister does. This child may experiment around with all kinds of possibilities until they find one that enables them to climb the tree. They might utilize a lawn chair or a tree stump. They may flex their upper body strength or ask for a helping hand from their big sister. They might change into shoes with a better grip. They might try different bodily positions as they navigate the branches. They might use a rope and create a harness like a rock climber.
The possibilities are endless when we as parents step back and allow our capable kids to figure things out through free play.
Kids who freely explore and play become problem solvers.
Unstructured play among multiple children provides ample opportunity for kids to advance in social and emotional development as they learn how to interact with siblings and peers. Play is so important for kids because it builds endurance and boosts their confidence as they discover their capabilities and progress through daily adventures.
Play for kids boosts both brain development and physical development. It is while kids are climbing trees, digging in the dirt, constructing forts, acting out imaginative scenes, building their own unique creations, and navigating issues with siblings that they are strengthened both mentally and physically.
Tips for Parents
(Simple Ways To Get Your Kids To Play and Go Outside)
Model the example
Inspire your children to embrace unstructured play by setting the example yourself. Whenever there is an area that I want to help my children to grow in, I make a point to walk alongside them first before cutting them loose to try on their own.
If your kids are not used to imaginative play, start by going outside with them every day.
Jump on the trampoline yourself.
Climb a tree, splash in a rain puddle, collect a basket of rocks.
Put on a British accent and play pretend you are in the middle of the American Revolution.
You are not too old to play, Mama.
Give it a shot and you might just have some fun yourself.
I have found that once I demonstrate free play, my kids are easily able to grab the metaphorical baton and carry on by themselves.
Bonus Mom Tip:
Read your kids the picture book “Roxaboxen.” This is a lovely story of children in the midst of creative free play. This book has spurred my own children on in their imaginative free play many times.
Eliminate Screen Time
Remove screen time as an option and require unstructured play. You are the parent.
Just like you have the power and responsibility to ensure that your kids brush their teeth, drink enough water, and try their vegetables, you also have the authority to make play a nonnegotiable.
My husband would refer to this “mandatory fun” from his days in the military.
If your kids are used to a lot of screen time, they might buck up against you at first or complain of boredom, but persist. Your efforts to require unstructured play will pay off over time!
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How to Get My Kids To Play Outside?
Provide Simple Supplies
Provide simple screen free supplies for your kids to enjoy. More often than not, my kids use natural materials to entertain themselves.
Sticks become the oars of their imaginary canoe. Rocks represent jewels in their pretend palace. Trees become their lighthouses and old paper towel rolls become their looking glass.
There is so much for our children to work with in nature, but screen free supplies can also enhance our kid’s unstructured play and encourage to play outside for longer periods of time.
If you need a little help igniting your child’s imagination and spurring them on in their free play, grab a few things from the list below.
Don’t over think it. You don’t need to buy everything and you don’t need to instruct your child on how to use their supplies. Let them make their own fun.
Bonus Mom Tip:
Use what you already have and check thrift stores and yard sales for used items before buying new. We have rescued many second hand balls and books over the years to build up our own free play stash.
Simple Play Essentials
Sidewalk chalk
Jump ropes
Bubbles
Bubble machine
Bubble guns
Squirt guns
Baskets
Sand shovels
Garden shovels
Bicycle
Scooter
Helmet
Looking Glass
Old Paper Towel Roll
Binoculars
Buckets
Kites
Flashlights
Lanterns
Jars with lids for fireflies
Butterfly catching net
Old cardboard boxes
Plastic mini army men
Toy animals
Backpacks
Fanny pack
Picture books
Basketball
Baseball
Bat
Soccer Ball
Goalie
Beach ball
Rollerblades
Skateboard
Slingshot
Nerf Guns
Rope
Bungee cords
Bow and Arrow
Target Board
Maps
Compass
Hula-hoop
Hammock
Outdoor Tent
Garden seeds
Watering can
Hose
Field hockey sticks and ball
Picnic blanket
Sketchbook
Colored pencils
Watercolor paints
Paint brushes
Canvases
Paper
Scissors
Glue
Jax
Small lawn chair
Wheelbarrow
Fishing pole
Trampoline
Backyard Zipline
Swing and slide playset
Treehouse
Mud kitchen
Old bowls and utensils
Sandbox
Tire swing
Capes
Plastic Swords and shields
Sprinkler
Sun hat
Baseball cap
Visor
Sunglasses
Pool
Pool floats
Pool toys
Water Shoes
Swim suit
Rain boots
Poncho
Snow gear
Kayak
Canoe
Sled
Snowboard
More Tips To Get Kids To Play
- Incorporate unstructured play time into your child’s daily routine schedule. Try to get them outside for free play after breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
- Invite friends over for outdoor imaginative play. Provide snacks and simple screen free supplies. Your kids will take it from there!
- Continue educating yourself as a parent on the importance of free play for children. Once you are sold on the idea, it will be easier to make it a priority. Two of my favorite books for moms on this topic are “There’s No Such Things As Bad Weather” and “Balanced and Barefoot.” Grab one of these books from the library and read in a lawn chair while your kids free play outside!
- Decrease screen time in order to increase your child’s appetite for independent play. It’s like fruit versus candy. Oranges are sweet and appealing until they are placed beside a bar of chocolate. Unstructured play is enjoyable to kids unless it is competing with screen time.
- Visit local parks, playgrounds, and scenic areas within driving distance from your home. Allow your kids to pick flowers, collect rocks, dig in the dirt, and wiggle their toes in the sandbox.
- Set a goal gift your child 100 hours of screen free play. Keep track of their screen free hours with my free printable tracker.
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