Creative-trap planning - or why free play is so important for children

Do you still remember your own childhood? After school and homework, the "Free Play" started - out of the house and without parents. Many childhoods are different today. The free time is planned and even the game is organized. We do not do our children a favor, however.

Being scheduled is part of the zeitgeist these days. Hardly anyone who has not organized their free time for weeks or months. We do the same with our kids, we just want their best - and are pretty wrong. Because free play is important in many ways, it is too short, then it can even lead to mental aberrations.

Free play - what is that?

Sadly, many adults can barely handle the term "free play". They think about planlessness, depreciation and nonsense. Because that happens well, if you leave the children to themselves. Nothing could be more wrong, because especially in free play, alone or with other children, learn our youngest for life. If you look at pedagogical definitions in the specialist literature, then the free game or even free game always goes to the following:

The children choose their location independently (of course within the possibilities).
You decide what and with whom you want to play.
You determine the choice of material, the course of the game and the duration of the game completely yourself (also within the scope of their possibilities).
You may also spend the free play with sweet idleness.
Of course, adults have to set a rough or exact time frame, otherwise it will not work. But within that time the child may and should play as self-determined as possible.

Over-organization prevents free play

Even our smallest are often fully planned. If you do not have to go shopping with mom, it's baby swimming, occupational therapy or kids gymnastics. Great offers for our kids who promote skills and help them develop skills. What is often overlooked is the abundance of children, namely the creativity that enables them to spend hours with two stones and three bones. Our children are literally bombarded with offers right from the start. We do not give them a moment's peace to engage with themselves, to sense what they want and need. Is it any wonder that these children, even at kindergarten age, do not know much about themselves and need someone to treat them?

Parents in control delusion

In addition to the general over-organization plagues many parents also an almost irrepressible control mania. He has very different causes. One of them is the idea that one's own child should be better off than oneself. Today's generation of parents is driven by the desire to spend as much time as possible with the child - a great idea, which unfortunately often drives the strangest flowers. Children can barely move freely, the parents are over-present and mix in everything, especially in the game. It's no wonder that the creative mind will eventually drop the sails and just wait and see what the adults have in store for them. Even fear drives many parents around. The reports of kidnapped, abused and disappeared children makes it impossible to lose sight of one's own and lock it in a cage that is certainly not golden, at least for the child.

If children can not play (anymore)

Once the child has lost the ability to engage in free play, he or she becomes bored - it simply has nothing to do with it and looks for easy ways to consume. TV, computer and the Play Station seem optimal to him. However, in this case, parents are far from just having to deal with a bored child: American researchers see a clear connection between the inability to play and the rise of depression and suicide attempts in children. In addition, children like to move around freely in free play with others. If this is replaced by controlled, low-activity activities or even the TV, it can lead to overweight with all its harmful consequences, among other things.

How parents promote free play

Good kindergartens and cribs make it happen: Free play time for children is part of the fixed daily routine in many institutions. For a long time, this methodology was disreputable because it was equated with the children being left to their own devices, and free play is usually done today in a well-prepared environment. Pedagogically valuable playing materials are available, which of them selects the child and how it plays with them, it is entirely up to him. This is not only practiced by the free kindergartens, the value of this method of playing has also long been recognized in state institutions.

We parents can also support the free play of our child. As? Quite simply, just leave it alone more often, do not control or comment on its game and take care of our own affairs, but still be available when the child needs us. For free play is not indifference, but active restraint to the game of the child.

Did I forget something? Can you think of any more points?
I´m looking forward to your experiences and additions.

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