Learning from Unstructured Play

Children will learn from any situation.

We had a rare and gorgeous December day recently. It was sunny, like the finale of autumn was saying good-bye before rainy, icy winter arrives. I took Ty and Za outside for playtime while C.J. napped. They played in the dirt and added water. We went through several wardrobe changes because of wet knees and mud-caked shoes.

Car "zooming."

Collecting.

Doing what big brother does.

I believe children learn from every situation. This makes me nervous because I want to be a good example, but I also try to seize upon this fact to instill small life lessons as we go through our days. (These are the ones kids remember the most anyway, aren't they?)

Unstructured play allows kids to think, without rules, media, noise. It also leads to team building, like siblings partnering and digging in your back yard for buried pirate treasure:

Unstructured play. Messy clothes. Buried pirate treasure. Happy childhood memories.