As parents, we want what is best for our children, and often, we operate under the assumption that more is better. This, unfortunately, is not always the case. As the summer days stretch on it is important for parents to remember that filling every available moment with “purposeful learning activities” isn’t always in your child’s best interests. Children need time to play. They need time to look at the world around them and explore it for themselves. They need time for discovery! As parents, sometimes the best thing we can do for our kids, is stay out of the way.
In her groundbreaking book “Worksheets Don’t Build Dendrites,” Dr. Marcia Tate outlines the critical importance of encouraging play that develops creativity and imagination. Summer is the perfect opportunity for children to strengthen their tactile, kinesthetic and visual modes of learning.
If you are anything like me, a quick look at your calendar will reveal that you are very over scheduled. If that is true, chances are, your kids are too. Music lessons, organized sports, summer camps, classes, and online courses or workbooks, can easily fill every waking moment of every day if we allow them to. Is this really what is best for your child? Is it even what is best for you? If we are honest with ourselves we will have to admit that our hearts cry out for a break from the madness, and the experts agree with our hearts! Yuko Munakata, from the University of Colorado, in Boulder, referring to a recent study he had authored on the importance of unstructured time for children said, “The more time kids had in less structured activities, the more self-directed they were and, also, the reverse was true: The more time the spent in structured activities, the less able they were to use executive function – the ability to make choices, integrate responsibility for those choices and critical thinking skills.”
Now, don’t misunderstand me, I am not suggesting that we allow our kiddos to spend all of their time just sitting around watching television, or playing video games on their devices, nothing could be further from the truth. We want our children to be actively engaged in the world around them, getting into things, getting dirty, discovering their environment and their own heart and mind in the process, but allow me one indulgence as I use a great cartoon as an example.
Phineas and Ferb was an animated kid’s show that ran from 2007-2015 and it was all about the adventures of two step brothers who were finding creative things to do with their summer vacation. Each episode would generally begin with some variation of the brothers sitting outside under a tree, looking relatively bored. No parent would come along with a workbook or worksheet, nor would anyone usher them into the car to drive down to football practice, or piano lessons; rather, they would be left to themselves to figure out how they were going to spend the day. At some point, Phineas would turn to his brother Ferb and say the words, “Ferb, I know what we are going to do today!” and the adventure would ensue.
The kind of creativity, imagination and innovation demonstrated by these two and their friends, while exaggerated to be sure, is exactly the kind of inventiveness, creativity, and self-determination that we want to see demonstrated by our children. The cartoon’s theme song gives ample evidence of the imaginative nature of this duo’s exploits:
The song goes on, but you get my point. It was all about using your imagination, and interacting with the world around you in creative, and problem solving, ways. The show’s popularity with kids, and adults (this one at least) rested in its energy, enthusiasm, curiosity and imagination. All things that we would love to see demonstrated by our own children, to be sure.
In order to help your children to make the most out of their summer vacation, there are several things that you can do to facilitate a meaningful, memory filled, break from the school year.
1. Make a decision to allow your child to have ample, regular, unfettered, unrestricted FREE time, to fill as they will, to do what they want, and to have the opportunity to explore their world. Don’t feel as though you have to save them from boredom. Allow them to save themselves.
2. Keep screen time in check. Watch out that your child does not fill this free time with screens that will do the thinking for them. This is time to interact with the world, not watch it unfold digitally before them. Time with the cell phone, hand held gaming device, or television should be limited, especially for younger children.
3. Provide access to the natural world. Make sure that your child has a place nearby where they can explore the world outside. A back yard, a nearby park, a nature trail, or some other safe environment where your child can explore, observe, play, and experiment is essential for their development.
4. A child does not need fancy toys to have a good time. When my son, (now 22) was five years old, his favorite toy was a stick that he found under a tree in the back yard. A stick can be a sword, a cane, a magic staff or wand, a screw driver, a conductor’s baton, or even a laser blaster. What they do need, is the opportunity to have self-directed time to use their imagination. Provide that, and you will be giving them one of the primary things that they need in order to make the most out of summer.
In addition to giving your child lots of time to play, encourage reading. Engage in reading together. A book-rich environment is extremely helpful in developing the learning skills that children need to succeed. Offer your child the chance to sit down with a good book, and you will be offering them nourishment for body, mind, and soul. Research has shown that seeing you reading has tremendous influence. Or take the time to read a book together.
One of the best memories I have of when my children were young is the time that we spent enjoying books as a family. At the beginning of the summer we would all sit down at the table and make a list of books we would like to read. We would write the titles down on scraps of paper and put them in a hat. Then, one of the boys would draw a title from the hat and that is the first book we would read together. It made for some wonderful family times of reading, talking about what we had read, and bonding over the stories that were shared. So. don’t leave it out of your plan, but build the experience in such a way that it is a pleasant and engaging part of your family’s life together. Not a chore for the kids to do, or an assignment to complete, but a shared experience that they will look back on with love for many summers to come.
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