Carol’s Summary:
When I was young,  I was blessed to grow up on four acres of random desert in Tucson, Arizona. My Mom would have us go outside after breakfast and at 5:00 she would ring an enormous bell and we knew that we had fifteen minutes to make our way back to the house to get cleaned up for dinner. During the day, we would spend hours hunting for materials with which to build forts in the desert. We would also play in an old log cabin and sometimes in my Mom’s old 1956 car which sat in our driveway unused.  We would spend hours observing lizards, hoping to find snakes and chasing quail and roadrunners. Little did I know that the ingenuity the five of us had in these endeavors with our friends would be the foundation of our lives—personally and professionally. Time away from school in the great outdoors, parks or places of recreation are invaluable assets to developing healthy, creative, capable and strong-minded thinkers.
Today, as the article below indicates, many kids are programmed with little time to spend outside alone or with their friends exploring and creating. When kids have to think of things themselves—instead of having all decisions made for them—they learn to see choices, trade-offs and consequences. These critical thinking skills are crucial to success in college, career and life. The experience that students get while recreating not only helps many students burn-off excess energy, it helps them to develop a healthy, holistic outlook to life. In LifeBound’s books, we emphasize academic, emotional and social development and we don’t think one is better than the others. They are all needed for life success.
Article: Play time: Kids need invaluable, old-style, free-form fun
All work and no play makes very dull kids, and a tight schedule of organized activities — soccer, art classes, music lessons — is no help.
Read the full article at: denverpost.com
Even though this post was from a year ago it is on the minds of parents and children. Many of us don’t want to over schedule our children. As this school year is coming to a close all the parents I know ask what my son will be doing this summer. It seems most of our children have some days or weeks of camp scheduled. But at the same time the children will have plenty of days to play any way they can imagine. The swimming pool, golf course, and beach are waiting for some boys I know.
It’s great to hear parents today are getting their children involved in summer activities or just out of the house to explore. This month, my company LifeBound launches a Summer Virtual Academy for students transitioning into high school. Summer learning losses in students are huge setbacks to starting the next school year strong. Kids need their breaks but they also need to keep their minds active. We hope to teach students about social and emotional learning this summer on top of their “free-form fun.” Thanks for the comment!