While I’m no expert at theater, and though my 1/2 hour teaching slot at our drama class is anything but fancy or refined, kids love it. Theater games and improve exercises are very free form.  Implication:  You can do it too. But be prepared to embrace some chaos.  Kids who are alive with imaginative fun are not sitting around quietly!

Here are a few of my class’ favorite games. Next time you have a group of bored kids around, try a couple of these and see how quickly time passes and how much fun you all have. But leave your perfectionism behind.

Duck Duck Animal—A twist on the familiar game Duck, Duck, Goose. Instead of saying, “Goose,” the child says the name of another animal and that child must become that animal as he/she races around the circle and tries to tag “it” before he/she reaches their spot in the circle.  Smart kids quickly say slow animals such as “snail” or “turtle.”

Statue Maker—A classic game. One child is the statue shop owner.  Another is the shopper. All other kids are statues. As the game begins all statues dance and wiggle until the statue maker says, “freeze.”  The shopper, who has been outside the room, reenters and is shown the statues one by one. The shop owner turns on each statue and it performs its function and is then turned off. After each statue has performed, the shopper picks his/her favorite. The chosen statue becomes the next shopper and a new shop owner is chosen. This is my group’s favorite game. It is raucous and fun.  (Young children will usually imitate each other and often end up chasing the shopper until turned off. It can help to suggest a theme for the statues, such as animals or sports.  It is also helpful to remind children they are not to touch any other children.)

New York, New York—(Also called Lemonade) Divide your kids into two groups of at least 3 each.  Each team goes to opposite sides of the room or designated outdoor area and decides on a vocation or activity, for example skiing or gardening.  Both teams come up to the middle line. Team A says: “New York, New York,” Team B replies: “What’s your trade?” Team A: “Lemonade!” Team B: “Show us some if you’re not afraid.” At this point Team A begins to act out their agreed upon vocation and the other team tries to guess what they are doing. Once a correct guess is shouted out, Team A tries to run back to their base before being tagged out by members of Team B who are chasing them. Teams then switch roles.

Tangled Knot–(at least 10 kids) All children stand in a small circle. Next, they reach across the circle with closed eyes and find two hands to hold.  Then the game begins.  The children must untangle the giant knot created without letting go of anyone’s hands.  Going slow is the key!

Detective–All children stand in a circle.  One child is chosen as the detective and leaves the room. Another child is chosen to be the leader. He/she will lead the group in motions, similar to Simon Says—clapping, hopping, patting head, and turning around—when the detective returns. The detective is invited back into the room and stands in the center of the circle. He/she must guess who the leader is. The group must try and keep that knowledge from the detective by not making eye contact with the leader, and the leader must be careful to change up the motion only when the detective’s back is turned.  Subtlety is the key.  Once the detective correctly guesses the leader, a new detective and leader is chosen.

Mirror–Children pair up, and face one another.  They take turns being the leader and the mirror.  The leader moves his/her body very slowly and the mirror must “mirror” the actions. The game is to mirror so well that an observer can’t tell who the leader is and who the mirror is.  Then kids switch roles.

For more ideas, check out: On Stage: Theater Games & Activities for Kids by Lisa Bany-Winters.

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who volunteers to do theater games with kids because of how she LOVED playing these games as a child. She wants to pass it on!

Here are some other ideas to encourage creativity:

• Make a big plastic container of jello. Add some extra packets of plain gelatin to the mix so it is firmer. As it is solidifying, add some plastic animals, small colored rocks, and other objects like corks, bottle caps, marbles, etc.  In the backyard (or the empty bathtub), provide your child with plastic utensils (yes, even a plastic knife!) and let them go for it.

• Collect starch-based packing peanuts and give your child a boxful along with a little cup of water. Show your child how to dip the end in a little water and stick it to another packing peanut. Be sure to take pictures of their creations!

• Pack a box with totally random craft items you might have around the house (just a few of each) – feathers, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, glitter or glitter glue, dried pasta, buttons, cut up straws, fishy crackers, empty toilet paper rolls, etc. Hand your child a couple pieces of construction (or plain) paper and a glue stick or glue bottle – AND NO DIRECTIONS. This is about the process, not the end result!

•  Find some unusual building blocks – a whole box of plastic or paper cups, stacks of paperback books, plastic bowls and plates. Provide a few matchbox-type cars or a small ball and watch what happens.

•  Hand your child a spray bottle filled with plain water and some sidewalk chalk. Send your child outside. Alternately, put fill two spray bottles with two different colors of water (or even the 3 primary colors – red, blue, yellow), and put an old (or cheap) white sheet down on the ground outside. Made those starch packing peanut creations recently? Have your child spray them with water to make a little magic.

Here are the rules:
No hovering
No directing
No explaining what to do (unless your child has never used a glue stick or squirt bottle before.)

This is all about fostering natural curiosity. Yes, there are certainly times when we should be right there guiding and teaching our children. But not all the time. You are your child’s best teacher, but our children don’t always require our presence in order to learn. And sometimes, when left to their own devices (with some objects to work with) they discover things about the world they might not have learned otherwise.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who warns you that the combination of child, markers, scissors and dog will end up being a learning experience for you, not for said child.

The one with the E: Interpersonal – think “internet”, which is a readily accessible, vast network.   And “personal”, so it has to do with people.

The one with the A: Intrapersonal – think “intranet”, which is a smaller, restricted access network.  And “personal”, so it has to do with people, too.

So let’s get right to your interpersonal and intrapersonal children.

Interpersonal Intelligence (People Smart)

Even at a young age, these children have the ability to understand and interact well with others. They are the social butterflies of the world, and enjoy meeting new people, often having a large circle of “close” friends. They are highly empathetic, and seem to intuitively know what people are feeling. They love to be part of a group.  They are good at conflict resolution.

These children are excellent communicators, both verbally and non-verbally. They love to play games, and are naturally drawn to helping and teaching others. They learn best by working in groups, and can be either leaders or followers. People-smart children grow up to be teachers, social workers, actors, politicians, and psychologists.

How to Encourage Your People Smart Child:

• play dates
• board games
• community service (helping others)
• work on projects (cards, cookies, etc.) to give away
• parties and celebrations – let them help with the planning!
• playing school
• dress up box
• lots of puppets, dolls, or stuffed animals for pretend play
• act out stories together (emphasis on the together part)

Interpersonal Intelligence (Self Smart)

These children are independent, self-directed, and self-motivated. They have a good understanding of who they are, what they are feeling, and what their strengths and weaknesses are. They learn from their own mistakes and successes. They have high self-esteem, and do not tend to seek the approval of their peers. They tend to have a smaller circle of friends. Self-smart children are often described as “marching to the beat of their own drum.”

Not surprisingly, they can be shy and introverted, and like to work and play on their own. They might also have a hobby that they don’t talk a lot about. Self smart children are often the ones who know what they want to be when they grow up, and they frequently become scientists, therapists, writers, lawyers, philosophers or spiritual leaders.

How to Encourage Your Self Smart Child:

• time alone (they really enjoy alone time)
• a cozy place to read, write or think
• self-paced projects
• free time and space to choose what they would like to do
• learning how to set and reach goals (Love with a capital L!)
• “how to” books – like Klutz books
• a journal or diary to write in
• books on subjects or people that interest them for “research”
• toys and computer games that allow independent play

We’re halfway through. Are you starting to recognize yourself, your children or your spouse? Remember, you can have more than one intelligence. You’ll probably see yourself in a couple of them.

-posted by Self Smart Miss Analiisa, who laughed with her People Smart husband Karl tonight when recalling that these particular intelligences were the reason for most of their conflicts when they were first married.

To begin with, a gardening project from the smallest pot on your back porch to a full-fledged vegetable garden requires planning.  Being able to plan a project, implement it, and see it through to the finish will bring great satisfaction and increased self-esteem as you and your child work together as a team.

Meresa in her garden at age 4, with her cat Max.

Gardening together can be such a positive bonding experience. Some of my earliest happy childhood memories are with my mother in our family’s vegetable garden planting green beans.  We would set up the bean poles and string twine between them for the vines to grow up; then my Mom would show me how to poke a hole in the dirt with my finger, place one bean in, and cover it over again–a great exercise of fine motor skills!

Did I mention that as a child I absolutes loved green beans?  I devoured them every time my Mom made them.  When I was four, my Mom took me to a u-pick field, gave me my own bucket and went a little further down the row and left me to merrily pick.  When she returned about 15 minutes later, she was shocked to realize I had picked enough to fill the entire 5 gallon bucket.  (Did I mention I loved green beans?) I figured, the more I picked the more I got to eat.

This brings me to my next point.  Children who grow or pick their own food are more likely to eat fresh fruit and vegetables and make healthier eating choices. Now, I can’t guarantee your children will love vegetables as much as I did (and still do), but I bet if your child has the satisfaction of being involved in the process of growing and harvesting what they eat, they will be much more likely to at least try it.  And, who knows?  Maybe you will turn out to have a ravenous green bean, broccoli, or tomato eater.  We can all hope.

Furthermore, planting and tending a garden provides real-life examples of life processes and opportunities for an increased understanding of ecology, interconnections in nature, and responsible care of the environment.  An easy and inexpensive small project you can do indoors any time of year is to make a terrarium. There is a fantastic guide on how to make one from a soda bottle at www.nationalgardenmonth.org.

Another great resource for gardening with children is the Parents’ Primer at www.kidsgardening.org.  It will help you learn all you need to know to get started gardening with your children.

-posted by Miss Meresa, who encourages you to let the horticultural adventure begin!  And wishes you the best of luck as you start planning, planting, and growing together.

I chose to share with you a few of their cool ideas for children of a variety of ages:

Adopt A Tree—This takes making tree rubbings to a new level.  The Bennetts suggest you encourage your children to adopt a tree in your neighborhood or a familiar park in order to make a “personal connection” between your child and the environment in which he or she lives. Treekeepers, says Bennett, must get to know their tree by “doing bark rubbings in the winter, press leaves in the fall, look for flowers and fruit in the spring and do leaf rubbings in the summer.”  Kids can bring along a drink of water for “their tree” and a tape measure to note its growth.  Older kids could keep a book to record characteristics, changes, bark patterns and so on.  Taking pictures of the child by the tree provides a fun record of growth—of tree and child.

Food Face—For kids who love scissors and bright colored magazines, this game is a winner.  Find magazines that have lots of pictures of food—like Family Circle or Woman’s Day, or Sunday paper ads– and find pictures of food that could be used for a face—like a banana mouth, or cookie eyes.  Cut out a bunch! Trace the bottom of a pot on paper for the face and paste away. The Bennetts note that another version of this game can be “Car Face” or “Machine Face.”  If the kids are too young to cut, you can clip for them before the game begins.  Make sure to have fresh glue sticks on hand.

Animal Footprints—I’m still smiling when I think of the fun kids might have strapping foreign feet to their own and traipsing through the snow making funny footprints.  I know finding snow may be an issue, but when the fluffy stuff falls, you’ll have a good idea ready.  Have kids draw large funny footprints on heavy cardboard.  (Save a box or get one at the grocery store.)  Then tape them to the kid’s feet using duct tape and let them make tracks in the snow. A fun version has one child making tracks and the other tracking the crazy animal to its “den.”  Make sure the feet aren’t so big that the kids can’t walk easily or safely with their “feet” taped on.

Post Office—This one is mostly a reminder about how fun it is to play with mail.  The Bennetts cleverly suggest that an open-backed chair makes a great post office window.  And we all remember any box can be converted to a mail box by cutting a flap or a slit.  For lots of fun provide: a kitchen or bathroom scale, rubber stamps and non-toxic ink, stickers and/or squares of paper and double-sided tape, and lots of junk mail.  For older kids, the Bennetts suggest that you use a world map and have them decide postage based on distance.  Kids usually recognize these sneaky attempts to make their fun educational, but you may get away with it for a while.

Homemade Dashboards—I saw a plastic version of this, but how much more fun to make one.  Take a cardboard box, at least 18 inches wide, and attach to it a Chinet paper plate with a paper fastener (brad) for the steering wheel.  Attach yogurt container lids the same way and mark the “dials” with a permanent marker for a speedometer and gas gauge.  Bottle lids make great buttons to push and a paper towel tube can be a gear shifter.  Cut a hole in the box for the ignition.  This homemade toy can occupy backseat drivers or be fun off-road.

Here’s the info you need to read the other 360 ideas the Bennetts suggest for TV-free living:  365 TV-Free Activities You Can Do With Your Child by Steve & Ruth Bennett. Their other books include:

Waiting Games:  202 Instant Activities for Turning Time to Spare into Time to Share

Table Talk!  365 Ways to Reclaim the Family Dinner Hour

Cabin Fever: 202 Activities for Turning Your Child’s Rainy Days, Snow Days, and Sick Days into Great Days

Kitchen Time: 202 Activities for Entertaining Your Child While You Cook

By Land, by Air, by Sea; The Ultimate Family Travel Activity Book

Kick the TV Habit: A Simple Program for Changing Your Family’s Television Viewing and (more)

-posted by Donna Detweiler, who liked the Bennett’s description of living in a home-based activity laboratory.

Superhero play helps children move their bodies by jumping, running, and trying new gross motor skills like climbing across the monkey bars. It also helps children feel powerful and in control when they are in a world that usually makes them feel just the opposite. Children engage in superhero play to feel as powerful as adults.

Although typically with less rough-and-tumble play, girls are superheroes just as often as boys. They may be less physical than boys, but they require just as much attention from adults. Just the other day, a child made a mask and cape at school during a craft project. She was using her “loving powers” to help people feel better who were sad or hurt. Later, she went home and with her mom, made hearts to bring to school the next day. Then she handed them out to other children at school.

That same week a 4 year old boy used his super brain powers to help others solve problems they can’t figure out. He could give them parts of his “super brain stuff” to help them “do hard stuff they can’t do by themselves.”

Superhero play in the classroom

When children play as superheroes, they learn how to respond to the needs and wants of others. They have to be able to operate in a group setting where everyone has different ideas about the game. Who has what super powers? How do they work? Are there bad guys and good guys? What’s fair in this game? Teachers and parents can help children distinguish between things that these characters do that hurt versus things that help. It’s important to open up the conversation that addresses qualities that superheroes have which help and benefit others.

Children who may find it difficult to voice their opinions are often empowered when pretending to be a superhero. It’s so wonderful and attractive to a child to be something strong and powerful. This is when a child who is quiet most often in play all of a sudden is shouting loudly with a big smile. By taking on another persona, a child can practice being brave or responding to difficult or stressful situations. Here is an anecdote from last week that illustrates how a child used his superhero game to help a classmate:

Kaveh: I can move so fast!
Me: Wow, I could really use your help.
Kaveh: I can do anything
Me: Can you help me rescue someone? She is in trouble.
Kaveh: I’ll help you
(he and I race off to a girl who is crying on the other side of the room)

We then helped her feel better about missing her mom. It was a wonderful lesson in empathy. They both played together later in the day as well, which was the first time at school the two of them ever played together. Kids engaged in superhero play use their imagination and learn to work well with others.

Setting limits

Superhero play, like other kinds of play, can become emotionally or physically harmful. So as parents and teachers, it is our job to guide play when it no longer solves problems or helps others. Children don’t know their physical limits and sometimes that means that they hurt others. We want to show them how to start play and how to be conscientious of others needs in the game.

• Establish rules from the start. For example, no pointing sticks or other props used as weapons directly at another person. These rules may need to be discussed several times. Listen to feedback. Kids can find creative ways to satisfy their interests while following directions and being safe.
• Be specific about what aggressive behavior is. Is it touching another person’s body? Is it using certain harmful words?
• Respond accordingly either by interrupting the play to stop aggressive behavior or talking about it afterward. The discussion can also address the story created, children who felt excluded and interesting twists and turns in the plot.
• Make sure there is an appropriate amount of space for safe play.
• Talk to the kids about real-life heroes, both male and female, and focus on their positive characteristics — for example, helpfulness, perseverance and diligence.
• Use this play as an opportunity to build problem-solving skills. When there is an issue, resist resolving it for the children. Ask for their ideas.
• Be positive. Acknowledge children’s new accomplishments and skills. Help them feel powerful.

-posted by Teacher Aaron, who if he could have a super power, it would be getting up in the morning without coffee.

“Where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes.

“Peace- that was the other name for home.” Kathleen Norris  “Where thou art- that- is home.” – Emily Dickinson.

“There is nothing like staying home for real comfort” Jane Austen.  “There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again”- Margaret Sangster

“I long…. To be at home wherever I find myself” – Maya Angelou.

“Snoopy, come home” – Charley Brown

“Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam…” (Sing that one)

There are so many famous thoughts and poems and quotes about the four walls we call a home- there must be something more to those four walls than just 2×4’s, windows and doors.

My kids love to be at home. Even now that they are teenagers they will insist occasionally on a jammy day.  We wear our pajamas all day. (Well, now that they are older, we wear our lounge clothes.)   These days are full of book reading, movie watching, and game playing.   We might make cookies or milk shakes.  But we relish our time together, cocooned in the haven that is our home.

We had jammy days when my boys were little, too.  I would come down on a Saturday morning to find them showered and in clean jammies, usually the footed zip-up kind (they wore them for jammy days up until about a year ago).  They would wait for me at the bottom of the stairs. I knew that meant I should back upstairs and put on my yoga pants and prepare to spend the day at home, regardless of what I had planned or needed to do.

We’ve always had a busy life.  So when my boys were little, home was where we decompressed from our many adventures, and the daily events that every family has to do.  Home was where we connected those adventures to the emotional framework that holds our world together.

Not that home wasn’t a great adventure, too.  We built many a tent for camping in the family room.  We battled space aliens in our yard, and constructed a rocket ship,  complete with a light up control panel that beeped, bopped, flashed and wailed when you hit the buttons on the outside (That toy, built by Boppa in an old suitcase, is a whole other blog… what a great toy!) We constructed train tracks that ran the whole length of the downstairs, and then ran our trains around and around.  We hunted dinosaurs, and scaled Mount Everest. We built metropolises out of blocks and demolished them with Tonka trucks, without ever leaving the comfort of our house.

My boys had favorite activities they loved to do on jammy days.  Hammering endless nails into scrap lumber, planting flowers in the yard, or planting anything, including Star Wars guys, Lego, Hot Wheel Cars. (I still dig up an occasional gem from their earlier years.)  They’d make a pot and pan band on the floor in the kitchen and sing at the top of their lungs

As they got older a jammy day was a time to play the never-ending board games that they liked so much, and for Michael and I to show them movies we’d always loved and that they were finally old enough to watch.

For a child, home really is where the heart is; there is no place like home.  It is their safe place, the place they can just “be” in.   It’s where they are most connected to you, and their siblings.  Their whole life revolves around home.

So it’s only fitting that the current Our Time semester is all about loving being at home.   It combines a variety of music, poems, and finger plays about the kitchen, the market, the food we get at the market, what we do with when we get it home, games we can play, the sights and smells and sounds and tastes and textures that make our own home the best place in the world. We even get to build the house.

A good portion of the music could even be considered home-grown. There’s lots of jazz, mostly New Orleans style, but other styles as well. Jazz is truly an American musical genre, one of our unique musical contributions to the world.  And party songs from the early days of our country become dances and games that can be played with your child at home.   Even the music that is not uniquely American is all about home.  Two piano works from Schuman’s Children’s Corner Suite grace CD number one.   This beautiful music was written for his beloved wife to play while their children played around her piano.

I love Away We Go, and Wiggles and Giggles and Fiddle Dee. They are the adventures we have when we are out and about in the world. But Milk and Cookies is the foundation on which those adventures take place. Our home is place we return to after dancing in Arkansas, where we are most likely to find Liza Jane and where Lukey’s boat is in dry dock.

This semester offers us a way to make our home more exciting and meaningful, and to make the adventures we have within those beloved four walls deeper and full of learning, and to discover how significant home is to our children’s development.  They can’t get excited about a train trip if they aren’t fully immersed and attached to home.  Because that’s where their hearts are, and yours, too.

-posted by Miss Allison, who leaves you with her favorite home quote: “There’s no place like home” – Dorothy Gale (Click your heels together, and be sure you say it three times.)

Why? Many parents and teachers have become so concerned with “the coming academics”, they put aside the very thing that will naturally and beautifully nourish and develop the skills needed for the math, reading, literature, history and positive social interaction. Pretend play is not valued as it was in the past.

Vivian Gussin-Paley was the guest on a podcast I recently listened to on BAM Radio Network. She believes that eventually we will be cognizant of society’s pressuring of young children to, as she says, “learn everything perfectly by the age of 5”. She hopes we will return to a time in which early childhood is about acquiring the language of play, which in turn teaches children the language of learning.

For instance, analytical thinking skills are  acquired through fantasy play. Questions like – How do we show our relationship to each other?, What are we feeling?, How do we express that?, What conflict are our characters in? How do we resolve the conflict? Where are we?

Watch your kids. You’ll hear things like “Okay. So say we’re on planet Endor in the forest. And we each have a power. Mine’s invincibility. But you can’t have the same power. What’s yours? And the clone troopers have found our ship and are searching for us. We’re scared. And we only have one weapon between us. Let’s go!”

In order to explain circumstances in a fantasy, children must step outside of the “situation” and look at the circumstances through another perspective. That requires developing a whole host of skills – language, analytical, cognitive, social and emotional.

The child development experts are becoming increasingly concerned, and rightly so. We are getting rid of something that has done its job for 1000’s of years – pretend play.

Where is all this “pressure” for academic performance at an early age coming from? I’m not sure. I’ve yet to find a single recognized, true expert in the field who promotes preschool (I’m not talking daycare here) for 2 year olds. (This wouldn’t include early intervention for disadvantaged children, or those with special needs. Real, ordinary preschool.)

I’ve never seen a single study that shows that “early structured academic instruction” creates children who can produce significantly more than their peers by third grade. I have read stories about children who are burned out by the second grade, and have lost their natural love of learning.

So why is it that we want our children to be able to spout their ABC’s by 3? Which by the way, have absolutely no meaning to children. Until the letters are associated with their sounds, and children begin to put those sounds together, this “skill” is useless. And until this association happens, letters are likely to get pushed out of the brain and forgotten as more information gets stuffed in there. Just because a child knows something, doesn’t mean he comprehends it.

I’ll admit it. My oldest knew all of his letters by the age of two. He was reading simple words by 2 ½. And really, I was really proud of that fact. Looking back, even though he wanted to read, I’m the one who put the letters in front of him and drilled him. It was truly all about me. How Nathan’s “skill” somehow reflected my “good parenting”. Luckily for me, he is an avid reader as a 6^th grader. But there were 3 or 4 years I struggled to find reading material for him. He may have been reading on an 9^th grade level in the 3^rd grade, but 9^th grade reading level had things I didn’t want him reading about yet. He had the skill to read the books, but not the comprehension level to understand the sophisticated subject matter.

By the time I got to my youngest, I went, “Whatever”. She’ll be interested when she is ready. And to my slight horror (cause I still want to feel like an “accomplished” parent), she was completely uninterested in letters until she was 4. But then within a month, she taught herself to read. At almost 5, she reads in fits and spurts, but only when she suggests.

How can parents promote fantasy play?

Vivian Gussin-Paley has a fabulous idea:

• Help the children become little playwrights and actors. When you walk by your child’s bedroom and you hear a couple of lines of pretend play, get a piece of paper and ask your child to share the story with you so you can write it down. And then have Daddy and sister or brother and Mommy and child all take a part and act out the story.
• Finger plays, moving to music poetry and fantasy, providing a well-stocked dress-up box.
• Reading wordless books (like the ones about Carl the Rottweiler) are great for language development and story telling skills.  A non-verbal child can point out objects in the pictures. A verbal child can be encouraged to tell the story.
• Lots of unstructured, unscheduled time!

Time is the most important element for effective pretend play. Children develop the most incredible stories. They just need extended periods of time to create them fully.

We’re in a world that increasingly wants quick results. We often fuss and complain about our children growing up too fast. Are we unknowingly pressuring our children to do so from a very young age, by focusing on the “product”, rather than the “process”? I do believe if we give our children space and time to grow and develop as they were naturally intended to do, the world will be a very different place in 20 years. For the better.

Vivian Gussin Paley is the author of “A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play.” A kindergarten teacher for 37 years, Mrs. Paley brings her storytelling/story acting and discussion techniques to children, teachers, and parents throughout the world. In 2004 was she was named Outstanding Educator in the Language Arts by the National Council of Teachers in English. You can hear the podcast in its entirety here.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, whose 11 year old still occasionally still engages in fantasy play with the 8 and 4 year old. The younger ones love him for it!

Your child’s job? (I’m talking about children newborn to 7 specifically, here.) Your child’s job is to play. Play IS work for a child’s brain. The brain is designed for the first seven years of life to simply organize things. And organizing play is how the brain does just that. I don’t mean organized play. Organized play is something that adults do to children. Telling them how and what to play.

So why are their rooms so messy? Well, it’s not THAT kind of organization either. The brain’s job is to organize all the sensory input it is receiving. Done well, and your child will be a happy and eager learner when they enter elementary school.

Way back in 1949, N.A. Alessandrini defined play as, “A child’s way of learning and an outlet for his innate need of activity. It is his business or career. In it he engages himself with the same attitude and energy that we engage ourselves in our regular work. For each child it is a serious undertaking not to be confused with diversion or idle use of time. Play is not folly. It is purposeful activity.”

This is still true today. The “occupation” of play for a child serves as a foundation for the development of future occupations (the kind they earn money for!) when your child grows up.

This day, everyone was in "family circles".

Now for your job…  As teachers of our children, what can we do that allows them to organize their play? By providing them with open ended toys like blocks, cars, dress-up clothes, art supplies, dolls (for boys, too!) legos, a sand box or water table, kid-friendly pans, utensils and pretend food.

Do sit down and play alongside your child. As well, give them room to play as they wish. Remember, there really is no wrong way to play with a toy. (I don’t consider breaking toys or eating sand playing.) Your child will play with the toys the way the brain needs to in order to organize itself.

Case in point. Science in the shower. We have an accumulation of foamie shapes left over from various craft projects. Big and little animals, cars, etc. A couple of months ago, I took a big handful of them and gave them to my 4 year old Natalie in the shower. The only thing I had to do was demonstrate that they “stuck” to the wall when wet. And then I stepped back and observed her.

It’s been months now, and they are still in the shower. She doesn’t want to take a bath because she wants to still play with those foamie pieces. What have I observed? Natalie organized her own play. Literally – Everytime I go to take a shower, all those animals will be arranged in a different pattern. Sometimes by color, by habitat, by size.  That’s science in the shower.

And then I get to see the outward manifestation of the internal organization that is going on. Because sometimes, Natalie takes two of the animals, and one is “bad”, and one is “good”, or one won’t let the other play with it, so she practices making friends, and works through social situations that are typical at this age.

You see, her brain knows what it needs. Your child’s does, too. We just have to provide the “tools” and the space to allow that to happen.

-posted by Miss Analiisa, who got in the shower recently only to be told that the particular arrangement of the foamies was because they had “gotten married and had babies.” And that, I suppose, is science in the shower as well.

I realized that when my kids start asking to play electronics too often, it just means they need a little motivation to go outside. So I have come up with a little list of things that occupy their time, entice them outdoors and entertain for hours (okay, so maybe only thirty minutes, but happily playing children for thirty minutes can feel like hours to a mom in need of reprieve.)

Here are a few free or next-to-nothing activities to get the kids playing outside:

Piles of wood.  I pick it up at construction sites (there’s usually a dump bin that you can pull wood out of for free) or I go to the back of the local hardware store, to their lumber department, where there is “clearance” wood…usually 50 cents for a 2 x 4. Here are some things we’ve done with our wood collection:

• Leave it in the dirt in the back yard: they’ll build construction sites, cities, and forts simply by piling the wood up.  The older two will make roads for The Little Mister to drive his cars on. Once we used the wood to build an obstacle course.
• Buy some cheap paint and let them paint the wood.
• Give them some nails and a hammer (adult supervision if they’re young) and let them pound away.

Cardboard:  We go to our local Costco and get these sheets of free cardboard that we turn into all sorts of things.  You find this cardboard in between the “cases” of toilet paper.  Their warehouse-brand toilet paper comes in on a pallet and between each row is a sturdy layer of cardboard that is approximately 4 ft x 2.5 ft (other brands of toilet paper have a less-study cardboard layer that I don’t recommend for fort making).  Anyway, every time we go to Costco, we get a few pieces of cardboard sheets.  Give them to your kids with some tape, some markers, and a knife if your kids are old enough, and the ideas are endless.  We’ve built boats, forts, fire engines, houses…the list goes on.   They even invented a game that transformed the pieces into imaginary “islands” that we had to jump to.

Cardboard boxes:  Another freebie from our warehouse store.  After we check out, we check out the supply of boxes that are kept near the cash registers.  Last week we snagged a few boxes that are now serving as homes for two dogs (stuffed) and a Zuzu pet.  With a few markers, cardboard boxes can also transform into fire engines, barns or houses.

Rocks: One of our all time favorite outdoor projects: coloring rocks.  When they’re young (say The Little Mister’s age), we use chalk.  As they get older, they graduate to watercolor paints and then tempura paints.  Keep a small box of paint supplies handy and when the kids need something to do outside, bring out the box and let ‘em go.  If you play your cards right and collected a box on your last trip to the warehouse store, you will also have a place to store these painted rocks.  Incidentally, if you don’t have rocks in your yard you can buy them at a gardening store or, even better and cheaper, pick some up next time you’re at a park or beach that does have rocks.

Play Picnic: Grab a couple boxes of crackers, cheese, water and pickles (or whatever your kids like to eat) and have them set up a picnic for themselves (and you.)  I have a plastic tub that contains an old tablecloth, misc plastic silverware and plates and a few odds and ends Adrienne has added to the box.  I ask them to please set up a picnic for our afternoon snack anywhere they choose. Once you head out to the picnic they’ve prepared, be sure to bring a read aloud book with you; it’s a nice way to spend the afternoon and reading outside just has this fun feeling to it that can’t be topped.

My point in all these ideas is that sometimes your kids just need a little boost to get their imaginations going. A few easy to find (and inexpensive to obtain) items are all you need to make your summer afternoons times of adventure and exploration.

-posted by Donna Venning, whose children are setting up an outside picnic as she writes this article.  Now it’s time to go enjoy the fruits of their labor….