Comments on: Kids Need to Play http://www.fun-activities-for-kids.com/kids-need-to-play/ Tue, 11 May 2010 00:54:27 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Vassili http://www.fun-activities-for-kids.com/kids-need-to-play/comment-page-1/#comment-46752 Vassili Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:59:26 +0000 http://www.fun-activities-for-kids.com/2006/10/09/kids-need-to-play/#comment-46752 When our son was 2 years old, we started thinking about helping him learn some of the essential skills in life like physical exercise and balance, empathy, good manners, listening, and so on. We looked around and found lots of books and programs about these topics, but most of it included either computers or were not appropriate. My wife and I both work in the IT industry and we know the damage seating in front of a screen can do. So we decided to 1/ register him a just 2 activities (gymnastics and pottery) and 2/ create our own games for him and they include no video, no batteries, nothing but simple boards, pictures and talking! From back of the envelop things, we went to full production and they can be found on http://4bambini.com and are for children 3 to 8 (good free coloring pages I recommend). The reason I mention them here is that the principle of them is that they require a dialog with the child about topics which are important to a 3 or 6 year old but still have a strong playing side, hence balancing the learning through playing as well as giving the parental vote of confidence which kids search. As a result, our son has time for himself (and he asks for time off when it gets too crowded at home), he has time where he plays with us and ask questions (our games, or many others which we find on web sites) and he has time for friends. All in all, like noted in the article above, this makes a good balance. A hard thing to find with the all the pressure parents are put under. When our son was 2 years old, we started thinking about helping him learn some of the essential skills in life like physical exercise and balance, empathy, good manners, listening, and so on. We looked around and found lots of books and programs about these topics, but most of it included either computers or were not appropriate. My wife and I both work in the IT industry and we know the damage seating in front of a screen can do. So we decided to 1/ register him a just 2 activities (gymnastics and pottery) and 2/ create our own games for him and they include no video, no batteries, nothing but simple boards, pictures and talking! From back of the envelop things, we went to full production and they can be found on http://4bambini.com and are for children 3 to 8 (good free coloring pages I recommend). The reason I mention them here is that the principle of them is that they require a dialog with the child about topics which are important to a 3 or 6 year old but still have a strong playing side, hence balancing the learning through playing as well as giving the parental vote of confidence which kids search.

As a result, our son has time for himself (and he asks for time off when it gets too crowded at home), he has time where he plays with us and ask questions (our games, or many others which we find on web sites) and he has time for friends. All in all, like noted in the article above, this makes a good balance. A hard thing to find with the all the pressure parents are put under.

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