Let kids be kids: unstructured play time may be more important than homework

From Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids:

Let Kids Just Play: unstructured play time is actually more important than homework.

Children have lost 8 hours per week of free, unstructured, and spontaneous play over the last 2 decades due to homework.

Decrease in unstructured play time is in part responsible for slowing kids’ cognitive and emotional development. Today’s 5-year-olds had the self-regulation capability of a 3-year-old in the 1940s; the critical factor seems to have been not discipline, but play.

Pretend play is particularly beneficial, so make sure kids have ample time for it.

Related:

The Case for Saturday School - WSJ.com http://goo.gl/6IBT - We tend to choose the "more" approach when often the smarter one works better.


Image source: Child playing with bubbles. Wikipedia, Steve Ford Elliott, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

4 comments:

  1. I really doubt there are any sub-5 year old kids losing unstructured play time due to homework. Show me a study where 12 year olds have lost self-regulation capability.

    And I would like to know what's different about today's 5 year olds compared to 1940's 5 year olds. I'm curious to see how this study was performed, how self-regulation was assessed, and how confident they are of child self-regulation reports from the 1940's.

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  2. From Twitter:

    @DrWestGRACE: My own kids say they agree!

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  3. Kids that are given enough play time seem to be happier and more active as well. Play is somewhat their form of exercise, something they need to stay healthy.

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  4. it's not "may"; it _is_ more important. kids today in the US are overly scheduled in & out of school. "play" _is_ learning. interesting reading: sudbury school, john holt, naomi aldort.

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