Sometimes taking a break from our schedules can be beneficial, especially for children. Most children need structure in their daily lives and parents try hard to provide stability. While many parents want to keep their children busy in after-school activities and organizations, letting your child have some free-play time may also benefit their health and development. Check out these 6 benefits of letting your child free-play:

  1. Builds creativity- Keeping your child’s afternoon open means she will have to come up with an activity on her own. Free play encourages your child to get creative and maybe even invent her own game.
  2. Develops motor planning- Free-play time teaches your child how to create and carry out plans and ideas. Unstructured play may also teach him how to deal with cancelled or changed plans by showing him that he doesn’t necessarily need scheduled playdates and activities.
  3. Helps teach decision making- Unstructured play allows your child to tune his decision making skills. Offering a small bit of independence with his daily schedule will help him learn to make choices on his own.
  4. Helps teach independence- Allowing free play time lets your child think independently. Unstructured play will give her a chance to learn to entertain herself. Maybe that means heading down the street to a friend’s when she has free play time rather than expecting you to tell her what to do next.
  5. Helps teach social and collaborative skills- Whether it’s skipping down the street to ring a friend’s doorbell, or joining a game of kickball in the cul-de-sac, free play time allows your child to adapt to group situations and learn conflict resolution skills.
  6. Gives opportunity to develop interests and skills- If your child has every minute of his schedule planned out, he may not get to explore things he finds interesting. Free play allows him to maybe try out his skills on the tennis court rather than the soccer field!

Next time you have an afternoon open, let your child determine what they want to do. Encourage them to get active and outside to enjoy the summer weather!

Related Articles

We would love to learn what would be helpful on this page for you.

Articles by tag

2020 4th-of-July aberdeen ACLS AED air-purificaiton allentown Allergies amerigroup announcement Antibiotics anxiety Asthma autumn award awards back-to-school baltimore baltimore-child baltimore's-child baltimore-sun beach bedside-manner bel-air Best-Of best-of-2019 best-workplace bethlehem Black-Friday blog Blood-Donation BLS blue-cross blue-shield capital-gazette children with disabilities Cholesterol Circadian-Rhythm cold-prevention colon-cancer concussion coronavirus CPR cramp-prevention Dehydration dental-health depression Dermatitis Diabetes drowning drug screening Dry-Skin eastern-pa easton Eating-Disorders employees Ergonomics E-Scooter exercise eye-health fall fall-sports First-Aid fitness flu Flu-season flu-shots food-storage food-swaps football for moms for-moms for-parents fredericksburg free-play Generation-X-Health gift-ideas Good-Fats Halloween hand foot and mouth Hand-Washing Hanukkah harrisburg Head-Lice Health-History health-symptoms healthy-eating healthy-living healthy-swaps heart-disease heart-health Heat heat-safety hiking holiday Holidays horizonBCBS horizon-blue-cross horizon-blue-shield horizon-insurance Humidifier hydration inclusivity inclusivity-&-accessability injury-prevention insurance jetlag Kidney Kwanzaa lehigh-valley life-support-class lyme maryland meal-prep mechanicsburg medical-records melanoma memory-retention Men's-Health Mental-Health millennial montco montco-pa montgomery-county montgomery-county-pa Movember new jersey new-center new-jersey new-year northern-va northern-virginia nova nurtition Nutrition occupational health osteoporosis outdoors PALS parent tips parenting-tips patient-first pennsylvania pets philadelphia philly physicals poison-ivy poison-prevention Pregnancy Probiotics pumpkin recipe recipes registration reicpes Resolutions richmond running safety safety-tips services Setting-Goals shin-splings sick kid Sickness-Prevention skin sleep Smoke-Detector smoking soccer sore-throat south-jersey sports sports-physicals Spring spring-cleaning Stitches strep Strep-Throat stress stress-managment stroke summer summer-sports sun-safety sunscreen TBI Teal-Pumpkin Teething tick ticks tips-for-parents top-physicians top-workplace traveling-tips travel-tips unitedhealthcare urgent-care vacation vaccinations vaccines Valentine's-Day Valentines-Day Vitamin-D volunteering washington-dc washington-post washington-post-2019 Weight-Lifting wellness winter yard-work Yearly-Physical