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

Articles by tag

2020 2021-top-workplace 4th-of-July ACLS AED air-purification allentown Allergies Announcement Antibiotics anxiety Aspen Hill coming soon Asthma award awards back-to-school baltimore baltimore-child baltimore's-child baltimore-sun beach bedside-manner bel-air Best of Best urgent care best-for-families Bestof best-of best-of-2019 Best-of-2020 best-of-award best-of-awards bestofcountytimes Best-of-Jewish-times-winner Best-Urgent-Care Best-urgent-Care-Bowie-Blade-News best-workplace bethlehem Biking Black-Friday blog Blood-Donation BLS Blueberries Camping capital-gazette careers Cholesterol Circadian-Rhythm Cold cold-prevention colon-cancer concussion coronavirus covid-19 COVID-19-Test CPR cramp-prevention Dehydration dental-health Depression Dermatitis diabetes drowning Drug Screening Dry-Skin eastern-pa easton Eating-Disorder employees employment Ergonomics E-Scooter exercise eye-health face-mask Fall fall-sports Farmer's-Market First-Aid Fitness Flu flu-season flu-shots food-storage food-swaps football For Men For Parents For Women for-moms for-parents fredericksburg Gastrointestinal General Generation-X-Health Gift-Ideas Goals Halloween hand-foot-and-mouth Hand-Washing Hanukkah harrisburg headache Head-Lice Health Healthcare health-history health-symptoms Healthy Living healthy-eating healthy-living healthy-swaps Heart Heart-Disease Heart-Health Heat Heat-Exhaustion heat-safety hiking Holiday holidays horizonBCBS horizon-blue-shield Hydration Illness Inclusivity Inclusivity & Accessibility inclusivity-&-accessability injury-prevention Insect-Stings insurance jetlag jobs Kidney Kwanzaa Laughter lehigh-valley life-support-class Lightning maryland Mask meal-prep mechanicsburg medical-records melanoma memory-retention Men's-Health mental-health Migrane millennial Millennials Mood Improvement Movember MRSA new jersey new-center new-jersey new-year New-Year's northern-va northern-virginia nova Now open in Annandale Nutrition Occupational Health ocean-safety osteoporosis outdoors Paddle-Sports PALS Parenting Parenting-Tips parent-tips patient-first pennsylvania pets physicals poison-ivy poison-prevention Power-Outage Pregnancy probiotics Productivity Protein recipe Recipes registration resolutions richmond River Running Safety Safety Tips safety-tips Seasonal-Affective-Disorder shin-splings Sickness-Prevention simply-the-best skin sleep Smoke-Detector Smoking Snow soccer sore-throat south-jersey Sports Sports-Physicals spring-cleaning St.-Patrick's-Day Stitches strep Strep-Throat stress stress-managment Stroke summer summer-sports Sunburn Sunglasses Sun-Safety sunscreen Swimmer's-Ear swimming TBI Teal-Pumpkin Teething Thyroid tick tips-for-parents top-physicians top-workplace Travel traveling-tips travel-tips Travel-Vaccines urgent-care Urinary-health vacation vaccinations vaccines Valentine's-Day Valentines-Day Video Vitamin-D volunteering Walking washington-dc washington-post washington-post-2019 Water-Sports Weight-Lifting Wellness Winter Workouts Yard-Work Yearly-Physical