Do your schedule time in your children’s day as ‘free play’? Do you let your kids get bored (& let them find their own games)?
A few ideas I use to encourage free play:
– send them outside…and lock the door (just kidding, but it can sometimes be tricky to shake the kids off you)
– give your children tasks to complete outside (& with any luck they’ll get swept up in their own play)
– You can find language in your backyard – my backyard treasure hunt that can entice kids outside
– set up ‘play invitations’ inside – think my weekly play themes or even just setting up a few toys here and there to encourage them to be discovered and play with
– encourage collaborative play with spare boxes or a pile of dress up gear or a big bag of blocks
– make yourself look BUSY! too busy to get involved in case the kids try to include you.
Here is a link about the importance of free play by Dr Helen Street. ‘Why over scheduling kids is robbing them of a life worth living’. Worth a read!
Don’t forget to take a look around in the different categories to see if I Raise My Kids is worth following for you! 🙂 Heidi