Let Your Children Risk a Little: The Case for Risky Play

I often see the quote “What if I fall?  Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” used as a caption on various social media outlets, usually underneath a photo of an adorable little human, and posted by a proud mama who wants nothing less than the world for her child.  Every time I see this quote it gets me thinking about how whimsical and beautiful it sounds in theory, as words on a page often do, but what is the real world manifestation of this, and what does it mean for our children?  Do we, as a society, value the ability of flight that comes from letting our children engage in risk taking play behaviors, or have we become too afraid of letting them fall? 

I grew up in a household where I was allowed to wander around the sewers with my friends, we climbed huge mountains of rocks and collected the best ones from construction sites, we played in the gutters while it rained, climbed tress as high as we could, and rode our bikes as fast as possible, with no hands of course (and in my case falling off and knocking out my two front teeth).  We chased each other, wrestled, and jumped off the high dive even when were terrified to do so.  It was all always worth the risk.  These forms of risky play are so very important to the development of young children. 

From an evolutionary perspective this type of play has proven to be invaluable, and teaches children an infinite amount of important things.  Their bodies grow and adapt to learning new physical skills as they build with new materials, learn how to use a hammer, whittle with a knife, or utilize rarely used muscle groups while climbing a tree.

  They learn how to regulate their emotions when something doesn’t go their way, or they get hurt while playing rough.  For example, during rough and tumble play (which I let my childcare kids engage in, though I know most providers don’t), if one child gets hurt accidently they may become angry.  However, they know that in order to continue the fun they were having they must be able to overcome that anger.  If they decide to lash out and retaliate, the play is over.  If they can learn how to deal with that anger (usually with my help) in a constructive way, the fun can continue.  

They learn how to work together and manage a situation in order to find the safest way to achieve their goal.  I see this taking place every single time I take the kids to play in the nearby creek.  We go over the rules, and they become the most helpful and responsible friends and siblings.  They help each other over larger rocks, they call out warnings such as “be careful right there Yards, that was a slippery one!”.  They learn about the powerful rush of water in certain spots, and stop to take notice of how when the water goes faster its more difficult for them to move through it, versus where the water is slower.  

Last week I tore out some old stones from my garden bed and decided to break them up into smaller pieces to see if the kids would be interested in building with them (which of course they were).  I had three different adults say to me “Arent those too heavy for them?”, “What if they drop them?”, “What if they trip over them while trying to carry one?”.  These are all valid questions, and of course we all want to keep our kids as safe as possible, but they NEED to be able to have experiences where they are able to push their abilities to new levels, which is exactly what they did. 

They never cease to amaze me with their capabilities, and this time was no different.  I asked them to sit down, explained to them that these stones are very heavy and that they need to lift them slowly and place them down slowly.  I told them they had to wear shoes and that if they felt one of the stones was too heavy for them that I would come grab it from them.  I told them that they need to focus and be very careful while piling them, and that if one of the toddlers started walking around them, they had to stop until I moved them. 

They followed every single one of these rules with laser like precision.  I was bursting with pride at how even my most easily distracted child was able to focus, and place each brick perfectly in its place.  They were also beaming with pride as they showed me their carefully constructed castles.  It mean so much to them that they were able to take on this adult-like task.  They told me all about how they were strong construction workers, how they would use the concrete to hold their castles together, and they praised the work of their friends.  It was truly a wonderful thing to watch.

Unfortunately though, I believe this kind of play is allowed less and less.  As a society I believe that we are beginning to see the harmful consequences of play deprivation.  “Over the past 60 years we have witnessed, a continuous, gradual, but ultimately dramatic decline in children’s opportunities to play freely, without adult control, and especially in their opportunities to play in risky ways. Over the same 60 years we have also witnessed a continuous, gradual, but ultimately dramatic increase in all sorts of mental disorders, especially emotional disorders, in children.  When you look back at the six categories of risky play (great heights, rapid speeds, dangerous tools, dangerous elements, rough and tumble, and disappearing/getting lost) in the 1950s, even young children regularly played in all of these ways, and adults expected and permitted such play.  Now parents who allowed such play would likely be accused of negligence, by their neighbors, if not by state authorities.” (Peter Gray PHD-Psychology Today)

While we may not be able to draw a direct connection between the lack of play and emotional disorders, there have been studies conducted on both rats and monkeys that would lead one to believe that there must be some correlation. 

“Researchers have devised ways to deprive young rats of play, during a critical phase of their development, without depriving them of other social experiences.  Rats raised in this way grow up emotionally crippled.  When placed in a novel environment, they overact with fear and fail to adapt and explore as a normal rat would.  When placed with an unfamiliar peer, they may alternate between freezing in fear and lashing out with inappropriate, ineffective, aggression.  In earlier experiments, similar findings occurred when young monkeys were deprived of play (though the controls in those experiments were not as good as in the subsequent rat experiments).  Such findings have contributed to the emotion regulation theory of play—the theory that one of play’s major functions is to teach young mammals how to regulate fear and anger.  In risky play, youngsters dose themselves with manageable quantities of fear and practice keeping their heads and behaving adaptively while experiencing that fear.  They learn that they can manage their fear, overcome it, and come out alive.” (Psychology Today)

Research has continuously shown that risky play (within reason) is of the utmost importance and I would urge parents, caretakers, and providers to research the benefits, and watch in amazement at what your children are capable of when they are given the freedom to play.

 

Showing Gratitude & Spreading Love (How are you Teaching your Little Ones?)

This is a post that I’ve been wanting to (meaning to) write since February, but to be honest, I’ve been busy since February. I’m still busy, but I thought that Thanksgiving would be the perfect time to pose this question to all of the seasoned parents, and to discuss the small ways in which we have been trying to give back.

I have been taking care of children for a very long time, and have always felt a responsibility towards them to help show them the importance of recognizing the gifts we have, and appreciating the people around us. Now that I am a mother myself, I feel that responsibility even more so. With the holidays approaching I have found myself having moments, of what I can only describe as panic, at the mere thought of how to even begin teaching my daughter what is truly important, at a time when it’s so easy to get lost in the selfishness of it all.  My husband and I have already made the decision that we will be very limiting in what we give our daughter as far as Christmas and birthday gifts. This year she is only one, so it is not yet an issue, however, as she gets older I want to combat the commercialism of the season, with the idea that our heads and hearts should be focused on giving back, and showing our gratitude, instead of focused on what we want but don’t need. So my question to you (and its a heavy one) is how do you instill this in your young children? What are the small things you do on a daily or weekly basis, and what do you do on a larger scale around the holidays?

The reason I have been wanting to write this since February is because for Valentines Day I decided that we would take the week to practice random acts of kindness. We did things such as making notes for our elderly neighbors and leaving them a box of candy. We thanked our mail lady (who is always so sweet to the kids) with a note and few boxes of Milano cookies. We took gifts to the park and left them for kids in the neighborhood, and while we were there we picked up trash, which is something I try to make a habit with them. We also made feeders for the birds and squirrels, and hung them in the yard.  

I haven’t been able to do as much as I would like to for Thanksgiving, because I’ve been battling bronchitis for about 2 weeks. However, one of my awesome daycare moms has stepped in and saved the day. The town we live in has a small movement called Frederick Rocks, where people paint and leave rocks around town with all kinds of messages on them. This mom gave us a ton of pre painted rocks, along with all of the supplies we needed!  The kids colored them with paint markers, and I wrote quotes and sayings about being grateful and giving thanks. Tomorrow we will place these all around our park and local community. We will also be taking brownies to three of our neighbors, who are always so kind to us, and have donated an abundance of things to our daycare. We will also be drawing and writing about the things we are thankful for. I’m very curious to know what everyone else will be doing to show their children the importance of gratitude this week? I know I will be grateful for all of your insight! 

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone!

It’s Not Just Play

It’s been quite some time since I’ve written a blog post.  As it turns out owning and operating a daycare, being pregnant, and having a baby all take up quite a bit of time and energy-who knew?! I do however enjoy writing, and one of the goals that I originally set for myself when opening my business, was to help inform and educate others of the importance of the educational philosophies that shape our days here.

Owning a business, a daycare, was not the path I sought for myself five years ago. I am an early childhood teacher by training and through seven years of college, hundreds of hours observing and teaching young children in classrooms, I never imagined that life would take me down a path that did not lead directly to a kindergarten or first grade classroom. Yet, here I am feeling more and more like I am right where I am supposed to be. In my home, teaching young children, and using educational philosophies that I wholeheartedly believe in – something I would be unable to do in a traditional classroom setting.

My message is fairly simple (though you might not know it based on the length of this post)—-play. Children NEED play. It is necessary to their cognitive, social, emotional, and physical selves that they have plenty of time throughout the day to be immersed in play. Whether that means completely open-ended play, or an activity that leads to open-minded and open-ended play, it is imperative that they play. It has been long established what play does for the development of a child, yet we continue to move in the opposite direction.  We have serious conversations about the state of our education system, yet we seem to turn a blind eye to what children really need to thrive.  We have a play deficit in this country, and we have been seeing the negative impact of that for quite some time. Academic agendas are being pushed on children from 18 months and up, and it is having a harmful effect on their entire being.  That is why I do what I do.

My daily goal is to create an environment in which children are learning important and basic life skills, academic skills, physical skills, social skills, and emotional coping skills.  There is purpose in everything we do and objectives that we try to meet which will ultimately match up with what they are going to need to learn to be “kindergarten ready”, but I don’t need worksheets to meet those goals. They learn all of this through play, and if done correctly they will hopefully grow to love and enjoy learning.  I engage them in in-depth project based learning, which is rooted in their current interests, I also pursue meeting learning objectives by doing something as simple as laying out materials for them, and seeing where they go with it.  And throughout all of this play we have discussions about colors, and shapes, and what letter sound something begins with. They learn everything they will need to know, but they also learn so much more,  and simultaneously they are happy, involved, and excited about their learning.  I work very hard to help them learn how to love learning.

Our activity yesterday is the perfect example of how academic, physical, social, and emotional objectives were met and exceeded through our play:

I recently noticed that the children in my care have been picking up sticks and other objects and swinging them around in the air, as well as swinging them to bang them on something.  Obviously this is a behavior that I have tried to stop.  However, wanting to swing, throw and hit objects with other objects absolutely has a place in the world, so this led me to thinking about how we could safely meet the need to swing and hit an object while at the same time having a discussion about safety and the proper times and places to do that type of activity.  Those were my initial aspirations with this activity.  Yet, as usually happens, the kids ended up showing me how such a simple activity could become an even more enriching learning experience.

As I filled the balloons one of the girls asked if we could paint them because we already had our paint outside.  I said “sure, what a great addition to our activity!”.  They each painted several balloons and I asked them if they would like me to paint letters onto the rest of the balloons that way I could say “Okay, now we’re going to hit the balloon that has the T on it”, and so on.  They loved that idea and told me which letters they would like painted on the balloons by making the letter shapes with their fingers (which they thought was hilarious, and I thought was fantastic).  I then strung up most of the balloons in the tree and let them each choose a stick.  Before I let them start swinging we sat down and talked about the importance of being aware of your surroundings when doing something like this, and that this was an acceptable time to swing a stick because I was there supervising, but that it is not okay to do it outside of this activity.  I told them they need to look around make sure that before they swing they are completely sure that no one is standing near them.  They did just that.  They checked all around them before swinging and when one child was swinging the other children made sure to keep a very safe distance.  They ended up hitting the balloons with the letters that I called out to them and when we were finished with the balloons in the tree we took a few over to the blacktop to play.  They asked questions like “how high do I have to throw it for it to pop”, and “what will happen if I just roll it?”.  We experimented with all of those scenarios and they were able to get answers to questions that I had not considered would be asked when thinking of this activity.

So to get to the point—

My initial objectives:

• Teach the kids about appropriate times to swing and hit an object
• Teach the kids to more aware of their surroundings as they do something that could potentially harm another person
• Work on hand-eye coordination
• Work on gross motor skills
• Have Fun

Their actual achievements through open-minded play:

• Learned about appropriate times to swing and hit an object
• Learned to be more aware of their surroundings as they do something that could potentially harm another person
• Caring that the baby may be too close and might have water splashed on her from the balloon
• Worked on hand-eye coordination
• Worked on gross muscle skills
• Had Fun
• Observed and discussed what happens when you hit a water filled balloon with a stick vs. rolling, dropping, or throwing a water filled balloon
• Utilized fine motor skills by painting with brushes on an object they have never painted on before
• Utilized fine motor skills and cognitive recognition of letters of the alphabet using their fingers
• Recalled letter sounds and shapes by hearing me say the sound of the letter and then hitting the balloon that had that letter painted on it
• Had questions asked and answered via scientific inquiry as to what would happen the balloon and why if we rolled vs dropped vs threw
• Continued learning about the importance of being generous, taking turns and sharing with one another (as one child wanted to break all of the balloons but realized that her friends wanted to be able to participate too)

None of those objectives would have been met if my only goal was to have them learn the symbols of the alphabet, or if I felt that rote counting was of the utmost importance. They learned more through this one play based activity than I could have hoped, and that is why I am begging you to let your children play and surround them with people who encourage their excitement and love to explore and engage in the world around them.

Keep an eye out because there is plenty more to come as I make it a point to blog more often about the things I am passionate about!

Process Centered Art & Learning for Young Children

I have written previously about process centered art, and the value that the practice holds, however, I realize that for many people this may be a new model of what children’s art (and subsequent learning) “should” look like.  I wanted to give a bit of further explanation, along with a recent real life example of when focusing on the artistic process gave way to some collaborative learning.  I believe that the key to understanding and embracing this worthwhile method is recognizing that whatever it is that the individual child creates through THEIR process is what that child’s art (and subsequent learning) “should” look like.  This is a very dissimilar concept to what the American education system teaches.  Many educational institutions, such as the NAEYC, advocate for process based art and learning, especially for preschoolers and kindergarteners, yet much of the research continues to be ignored by our education system.  Most schools tend to concentrate mostly on the PRODUCT of children’s art (and as a whole, their learning), which holds very little significance for young children.  Product focused art is exactly what it sounds like, it is “creating” something where the value lies in the end product.  However, the end product is generally one that has been given to you.  It is something that someone else has already created and you are merely replicating their work, and being told by an adult how to do so.  From what I have observed, this type of art, a recreated craft or picture, is often more for the benefit of parents,  to show them that their child has “created” something that is recognizable to them.  Still, this recreation often holds little worth or meaning to the child who made it.  The largest benefit of these types of crafts for young children is that they get to hone their fine motor skills.  This however is something that children can also achieve through process focused art, along with the other innumerable benefits that go along with the practice.

Just to reiterate and refresh, here are just a few of the wonderful things that can be learned and gained while focusing on the process instead of the product:

• Social and Emotional Development: It is relaxing and theraputic, Children get to express their emotions, they feel a sense of accomplishment and success, they can use symbols to replace real objects which represent ideas and feelings, and they learn to find meaning and satisfaction in the present.
• Language and Literacy Development: Children discuss their art with adults and peers as they are creating, and they can add print to their art, or dictate what they would like it to say
• Cognitive Development:  They can make comparisons of texture, color, mediums, etc., they can plan, they can make predictions, they can learn to problem solve and make decisions.
• Physical Development: They use small motor skills to paint, write, glue, mold, and make collages.

It may seem difficult to know where to begin with process focused art, which is why I wanted to give a real example of a collage that we created last week.  This was created by two of the one year olds and one of the two year olds I have in my care.  It was really wonderful to watch them work on this.  Children are often capable of so much more than they are given credit for, and this collage was a perfect example of that.

The first thing that we began with was a wide variety of materials.  The children were able to freely choose which materials they wanted to use, and how they would like to use them.

I started this activity with both watercolor and tempra paints, different colored paper, paint brushes, sponges, several types of yarn, cotton balls, felt, pieces of differently textured and patterned fabric, contact paper, tubing, and q-tips.

I let them pick through the materials and they both said that they wanted to paint, so I put out the water colors and tempera paint and let them use their hands, brushes, sponges, cotton balls, whatever they decided on.  They spent well over an hour painting, and using the different types of tools and mediums available to them.

Once the two year old had finished painting I asked her if she would like to use anything else on the table, and she said that she would like to use the scissors.  I let her choose what she would like to cut and she choose paper.  She practiced using the scissors for a bit, but became frustrated, so I showed her that she could also use her hands to rip the paper, which gives a different effect than cutting.  She loved ripping the paper and once the one year old saw her doing this, she wanted to join in, so they both spent some time doing that.  The one year old also started teasing the cotton balls and yarn apart.  Throughout the rest of the process they cut yarn, ripped fabric, and cut fabric.

As they worked we discussed how colors mix to make new colors, we talked about the shapes and colors of the felt that I put out for them, we also sorted the shapes, we talked about the sound ripping paper makes, but how “ripping” yarn makes no sound at all.  We talked about all of these things along with much more.

                                    

I had contact paper taped to the wall, with the sticky side up, and when they were finished with all of the above I put all of the materials that they had painted, cut, teased, and ripped into two baskets and showed them how they could stick the materials to the contact paper.  They LOVED this so much that they worked quietly together for nearly another 40 minutes.  The whole project lasted about 2 1/2 hours and they were entirely engaged and active the entire time. The two year old couldn’t wait to show her mom and seemed to be so thrilled about what they had created together.   It was really a perfect example of what process art can help children learn and achieve.  We were so successful that the next day I repeated parts of the process with the second one year old, we and added to our collage.

I hope that you will try something similar with your little ones and help them to experience some hands on, in the moment, messy, extensive learning!

An Ode to Mud

Okay, no I have not written a song or poem about mud, but what I am going to do is shed some light on the subject of the importance of playing in the mud.  Most people tend to cringe at the very thought of letting their children roll around in mud, squashing it through their fingers and toes, and getting it in their hair, and I get it.  It’s a lot of work, and can be a disgusting mess, but, that’s what hoses are for right?  So, here are just a few of the reasons I firmly believe you should let your children make mud pies, use mud as an artistic medium, roll around in mud, and do anything else mud related that their brilliant imaginations can conjure up.

1. Mud is Scientist and Doctor Recommended – Something that I did not know about myself until my late twenties, when my husband and I bought our first house together is that I LOVE to garden!  I love everything about it, and at the end of a long day of working in the garden, I feel great.  I feel refreshed, happy, and generally just relieved of stress.  As it turns out, there is some sound scientific reasoning as to why I feel this way after a day in the dirt.  I won’t go into the detailed science of it all, but a 2007 study, originally published in the journal of Neuroscience found that a “friendly” bacteria found in soil activates brain cells to produce serotonin.  They essentially found that playing/working in the dirt has the same effect on one’s brain as an anti-depressant, leaving you happier, and less stressed.  So not only is the mud great for children’s mental health, but for ours as well!  It seems we should all take some time out to play in the mud.  If you would like to read more about the science of soil you can visit http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840.php
2. Mud is an Astoundingly Wonderful Medium for Open-Ended Play and Learning – When children are allowed to explore with mud and a few simple household items, the sky is the limit.  They express their creativity in a myriad of ways, they enhance fine motor skills, and practice literacy and math skills.  They are given the chance to explore texture, see what happens when mud dries, or when dirt becomes wet, they use problem solving skills, and investigate volume.  They utilize their communication skills and practice working together and cooperation as they cook, clean and experience pride in their completed work.  All of the pictures I have here are of us working in the mud kitchen, but that does not mean you must have a mud kitchen to play in the mud.  Children are very resourceful and will utilize the materials you give them in the most creative way possible.  All you have to do is give them the medium, maybe include a some utensils, pots and pans, shakers, etc. and they will create their own world.
3. Playing in the Mud Helps Children to Connect with Nature – In this age of technology I don’t think I need to say much more than that this is something which children desperately need.  As screens become a bigger and more time consuming part of our day (at home and in school) children desperately need to be able to take time out to connect with nature, and they need a variety of ways to do that.  Our children are suffering from a nature deficit, but there are so many ways to turn this around, and mud play is just one of them.
4. Mud Play is an Amazing Sensory Experience for Babies and Toddlers – Mud provides a completely new and different tactile experience than any other sensory medium.  Babies and Toddlers should be given the opportunity to squish it in their fingers and toes, sit in it, sift it, and search through it.  You can sit them in a bin, or simply let them crawl around in the mud.  Either way they will love it, and benefit from it!

These are just a few of the ways that mud can benefit our children, and us as well.  I hope that you will take it to heart and let your little ones indulge in this rewarding and beneficial activity.  Happy Playing!