Last week I volunteered myself, my seven-year-old son and my mom to be part of a study being done by the University of Alberta regarding free play, and how today’s children play differently than past generations.
I expected the interview to be rather quick, but after about an hour speaking to one of the PhD students involved, it was clear that this research project is something that is worthy of further exploration.
One of the first questions in the interview asked me to describe where I played, while growing up. Considering we currently live with my parents while we start building our new house, and we were doing the interview at home, the place I was most familiar with while growing up was the very yard we live in now, and the same yard my own children play in.
Although it was a unique situation, it allowed me to compare how my children play with how I played, and I realized that as a parent, I might actually being doing something right.
The simplicity involved in free play certainly hasn’t changed over the years, and although my own children have more technology and toys than I did growing up, there are still many similarities between how my boys play, and how my siblings and me played.
My seven-year-old is very content spending hours at a time outdoors, playing baseball, soccer, or just exploring the large yard and bush in the back. My younger son is happy to be outside too, but he is also happy to be inside, playing with Legos, and of course his video games.
But, that’s really no different than how I remember my childhood. My oldest brothers were often busy outside, making forts and riding quads, while my youngest brother was pretty happy with organized sports, video games and Pokémon cards.
My kids seem to be a fun mixture of all those things, and I don’t see anything wrong with that. Not all kids are happy being outside, playing for hours on their own, and instead thrive on organization and a little bit of computer time and acting out sequences to the movie Frozen over and over, while working up a good sweat.
Like everything in life, free play and how children get their physical activity is likely about moderation, and a mixture of other healthy habits. Although I’m sure things have changed between generations, and society has had a huge affect on how children now play, in our case, I think we’ve managed to keep a good enough balance.
My kids certainly know how to play make-believe, even if it involves zombie hunting, but they are also gaining valuable skills learning the technology that they will undoubtedly have to use in school and later in life.
