Life is full of obligations even for a child. For example, getting ready for school a child must get dressed, comb their hair, wash their hands, and eat breakfast (be sure it is nutritious and do not waste food by not eating all of it!), and brush their teeth just to go to play. Then afterword a shower and dinnertime, but it is not just that simple. Before they eat, they must sit up straight, wait for everyone else to gather at the table to eat, and then pray. Children are expected to obey so many rules that free time is a necessity, but because parents are so involved in their children's lives and want to keep their free spirits from crumbling and their independence and creativity from washing away, they bring planned activities into the free time which becomes an over abundance of rules. So, when do children nowadays have time to discover and explore what is in their minds and what happened to the “free” in “free time”?
Kids need to learn how to cherish free time so when they are adult, they can use their free time constructively. Sometimes it is difficult to come up with something to do when there is literally nothing to do and nobody is telling you what to do. Allowing children unstructured free time gives them experience in solving this problem and in the process gives kids the satisfaction of independence and a feeling self-fulfillment because they are in control of their own destiny. Having this opportunity also allows them to discover who they are, what they like, and what is comfortable for them. Unstructured free time is an opportunity for kids to think about goals and dream about their future, which in turn gives our lives purpose and puts us in control. Free time allows children to find success on their own and uni...
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..., create stronger family bonds, and learn to create a better future. They are more emotionally stable and develop perseverance. They learn to be happy and help society in the process.
Having free time is not the same as having unstructured free time. Free time that is unplanned and unstructured helps children by providing kids an opportunity to manage their free time as adults. Unstructured free time through role-play and the ability to choose their activities and friends, gives children confidence and a chance to deal with their feelings and other people. Unstructured free time brings peace and opportunity to uncover hidden skills that allow kids to enjoy life, become strong decision makers and ultimately help others. “Free time” all too often is rigid and rule oriented, so for children to benefit most from this time, it should be unstructured and really “free”.
When kids are getting their necessary period of interrupted play it has great benefits in the classroom helping their cognitive skills to grow. As children get to play at regular intervals through out the day, they children are able to diminish stress and other types of distractions so when they sit down they are more attentive and productive.
In the essay, “The Boredom Effect,1952, writer Ellen Ruppel Shell acknowledges the child’s mind and how creative their mind are. The purpose of this essay is to persuade the readers that a child should never be bored and that they should always have something to do with their spare time. She felt that children should taste their freedom by exploring the world. Also, she said guardians should not try to create activities or put them in sports to keep them occupied. Ellen writes “Back then, parents pretty much stayed out of children’s business.” In her thesis, she mentions that parents should let children be bored. I agree with Ellen, parents should let their children be children and let them be creative. However, parents shouldn’t control their
Let’s pause for a second, let’s take a look what nature has for us. It is beautiful and yet harmless. Kids’ don’t spend the sufficient time to intake the benefits of nature. Louv says, “Playtime, especially unstructured imaginative, exploratory play is increasingly recognized as an essential component of wholesome child development” (48). He is saying to let our kids free and explore on their own. It is what brings fun to their lives. Knowing what comes next it’s pretty boring. Imagination brings excitement and knowledge to the human kind.
Anna Quindlen is the author of the excerpt “Doing Nothing is Something.” The author, formally a New York Times journalist, remains a best-selling author of children’s books. In the excerpt “Doing Nothing is Something,” Quindlen hypothesizes that children these days are over scheduled by the amount of organized activities planned by the children’s parents. Such erroneous philosophies have been disputed in defense of structured, extracurricular activities. The following examination of these contrasting opinions will indeed show that children are not being over scheduled just because they participate in one or two structured activities, and in fact, children thrive when their lives are structured.
The lack of playgrounds gave my friend and I the opportunity to create games and scenarios out of thin air. Alondra and I could be zookeepers chasing after our favorite animals or space explorers who eventually discover an alien race! Not having playgrounds forced Alondra and I to open our minds and that lead to endless possibilities of fun. Imagination has a colossal effect on a child’s mind as they grow into adults. Stimulating your imagination when you are young can lead to out of the box thinking which can benefit a child’s learning.
... with stressful situations. This can be seen as a very helpful tool in the future when have to be independent and adapt to living and being on their own. Have the ability to adapt and not stress out about unseen situation can be seen as a strong leadership quality. This can help children by analyzing situations with a clear mind to focus on the best possible action. Having moving from many different places miltary children can adapt to new situations whether it be social, cultural or stressful.
In the past, adults and children had a very different schedule. Children were allowed to discover themselves without a gene donor, or a guardian overriding their decisions. Recently, adults are controlling their children like robots. From the moment they are born their parents have a full schedule for the rest of their life. Activities like joining a soccer team, being in all advanced classes, taking the ACT, and deciding their entire education and schedule of their life makes this generation of children as grumpy and busy as the adults. Anna Quindlen portrayed this idea in her famous essay “Doing Nothing is Something”, where she forces readers to realize that children are not getting enough time to themselves to be children. The way children are being brought through the world will need to change or else they will never learn from themselves and they will not be able to obtain their full potential.
adults our self we gain a better understanding of the sacrifices our parents did for us, or the
... can consume something constructive instead,like spending some quality time with their parents before leaving or having a proper breakfast instead of rushing out of the door".
...r the parents. The parents were able to see and observe their child’s development clearly. This will make them feel more responsible towards the child’s progress and felt happy with the development. Parents also have a chance to work together with their child and make a garden at house.
As most adults know, children have their own way of thinking about things. Think about it: For an average of eight hours everyday, five days a week, children must sit in a classroom in chairs and listen to a teacher talk. Most students probably feel trapped and tired of doing the same thing every day,
...nhance one's self esteem. This motivation protects people from depression but in turn contributes to misjudgment and group conflict. It also causes one to live in such a "dream world."
However, despite the unquestionable link to a brighter future for the children who engage in it, less and less time is being allotted for play in the classrooms. As standards for what children are expected to know at younger and younger ages continues to rise along with the demand for standardized testing from the state, time for play is being sacrificed. Adults are choosing to get rid of time for unstructured play and recess to make time for this new testing interfering with the time allotted for children to learn independently through play. Cutting play and recess is a mistake, and here is why: “recess gives students time for social interactions: for students must be able to initiate, negotiate, cooperate, share, and build relationships with one another--skills that are highly valued in the adult world but that often are quite different from work or play under adult supervision and control” (Chang). Those skills learned through play, are often not the sole purpose of a classroom lesson and could potentially be the only place they learn those needed skills. Play is an affective measurement in the classroom as well as outside of the classroom and children can learn so much from it if only given the chance
During this time children are testing their limits. Children who don’t have autonomy and initiative as a child will grow up to be dependent. Around this age my mom told me that I was a busy body, I use to climb on everything and get into all types of products such as, baby powder. There were times when I would be doing something that I was not supposed to and I would get reprimanded for it but, there were also times that my mom would let me have the freewill to climb on furniture so I can learn the consequences that come with it. Like there was this one time when we were at home and I was climbing on some boxes after my mom told me not to but I did it anyways and I fell face first and my tooth went right threw my bottom lip. My family never shamed me for being a tomboy or never wanting to play with
The modernized world has changed people’s perception on how they look at break time or playtime. Many people fail to give importance on break time or playtime in primary school. Thus, the duration given for playtime in primary school level has eventually reduced down the years. The NF (2014) states that ‘school breaktimes are getting shorter despite pupils and teachers recognizing them as an important opportunity for physical exercise and socializing’. Rochman (2012) mentioned that ‘playtime can be as important as class time for helping students perform their best’. If studying is claimed to be important and is the main focus at primary school level, playtime is equally important too as playtime is the duration where children gets the opportunity to develop various skills.