I’ve definitely romanticized those long boring summer months of my childhood: lazy mornings spent on the back porch, living in my pajamas well after lunch, hours spent at the neighborhood pool, and captured fireflies staring back at me through glass mason jars as I slept. Now that I think about it, maybe I’m not romanticizing at all; it does sound pretty magical. I grew up in the 80s, and my mom was a teacher who had the summers off – and she took those summers seriously. They were full of art classes for her and museum trips to Washington, D.C. for us, and a few camps here or there, but she was thoughtful to keep just the right amount of time for us to get lost in our own boredom. I remember those long days of “boredom” vividly. Once a few neighborhood kids and I built a huge fort out of the ridiculously large cardboard boxes that we collected from a recently purchased Nordictrack. The fort took us days to create, and we played in it for at least a week. We painted it, ate lunch in it, hid snacks in it, and created a whole new cardboard universe. There is only one explanation for how we crossed over the threshold into that cardboard world: we were bored.
Who knew how intuitive my mom was, ensuring boredom and play were a part of our summer experience. She knew if she ignored our “I’m booooarrrrds” enough, something inside us would unlock and over that threshold we would go. (In college I wrote an essay titled, My Mom Was Right – so I should have known.) Regardless of her educator instincts, neuroscientists confirm her narrative; research continues to emerge claiming the important role boredom plays in maintaining our mental health – a topic we are all concerned about these days.
We take that magical kind of free, unstructured play seriously here at TVS, too. Playful learning is a signature part of our learning design. Learners from ages 4-14 have an average of 2 hours of unstructured free play every day of the week, a stark contrast to the typical recess allotment. This summer our Guide Team is reading Project Zero’s latest research on the subject in a book called, Pedagogy of Play, which will inspire and equip us to infuse even more of a playful approach across studios.
At the risk of sounding trite (and old), I’m not sure kids these days experience the same type of “boring” summers. In the culture of overscheduling, overcommitting, and overextending, do kids even have the chance to feel bored and lean into that boredom and play? Acknowledging that a summer full of pricey camps is a privilege and not an option for many families, finding playful moments is still very much a possibility. Researchers who have spent their life’s work studying this topic remind us that playful moments can happen anywhere, anytime.
As the parent of an 8 and 10 year old, I have to remind myself of the benefits of playtime, especially when my email inbox explodes with summer camp registrations in January each year. (Those emails usually haunt me until Spring Break.) Dare I say it, boredom and free play is actually my number one summer priority for my kids.
Owen, a middle school learner, spent six weeks researching the role of play and writing a speech advocating for just this kind of experience for all kids. His speech is titled: Play is not a Privilege, It’s a Right, and we wholeheartedly agree. Read an excerpt of Owen’s speech and see if you aren’t inspired to allow yourself a little bit more time to get bored and play.
Play is not a Privilege, It’s a Right.
by Owen Quinn
As a kid do you remember getting home from school, throwing your bag on the ground, and then running down the street to play with your friends? You then quickly ran back because you forgot to do your chores. You finish up and bolt down the road. Your other friends are already there and maybe they’re doing something inside, or you played tag on the lawn. This is called free play, and it is very important.
And the truth is, most kids these days, in places like Northern Virginia, won’t experience a lot of free play. Kids are overscheduled, with sports, tutoring, and so on. And beyond that, these extracurricular activities are very intense to the point that for many kids, the spirit of the game is lost. Coaches and parents trade fun for winning.
I’ll tell you why this topic matters to me. I love free play. I always have, though there have been times in my life when I didn’t have time to free play. Here is the story. Two years ago I wanted to try lacrosse because I thought it would be fun, and it was! But coaches kept telling me I was behind, all because I started late, as a 10-year-old! I apparently had to have been playing since I was 3.
Almost all of the kids on my team were on a travel team as well, and I thought this was the answer. So I signed up for travel lacrosse. And I’ll admit, I got better, but the tournaments were so intense, they weren’t fun. And this was when I realized, I didn’t have to play travel. If my heart isn’t in it, what am I doing here?
I do not play travel lacrosse anymore, but I still love to play recreational lacrosse. I don’t have anything against travel sports, I just know that it wasn’t for me, and I believe there are other kids like me, who feel pressured.
I have more time now for things like going to the woods to build forts, skateboarding, and doing projects such as building a business. I love all of these things because I feel I have a lot of freedom within them, and it feels a little like free play. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is very important to play at least one team sport, but something that is even more important, and is lacking in kids’ lives, is free play.
Schools also need more free time so kids can play. The average school recess time in America is 25 minutes per day. Studies show that kids should have longer free time, the average being 1 hour a day. Kids that have short recess do not have enough time to get all their energy out and they come inside still in hyper mode. So some schools never even let the kids outside in the first place. This still doesn’t work. Exercising is part of not only your physical health but also your mental health.
I know that kids like me need to move their bodies a lot. I don’t know about other kids, but I require exercise to feel happy. After moving my body I feel reset, and I feel much happier. Kids that have at least an hour of recess are proven to perform better in school. People might believe that as you get older, you need less time to run and jump around, but that’s not true. All kids deserve the chance to move their bodies.
All kids also need to take risks. Risks are very important, especially for the adolescent mind. Risks help kids create a sense of independence as they become young adults, they allow kids to see what they can do and see what their limits are. And good risk-taking in adolescents is proven to make kids happier. And now you may ask, what is the difference between good risk-taking and bad risking taking? Research shows that kids that do not have a good outlet for risk-taking may take risks in unsafe ways, such as drugs, fighting, self-harm, or breaking the law, all of which are proven to give kids anxiety and depression later in life.
A good risk gives you a healthy dopamine rush. Some examples of good risks are rock climbing, mountain biking, martial arts, skateboarding, and parkour. Or if you’re not into athletics, you can take risks by joining some kind of social club, or within academics, entering a spelling bee is a risk.
Not all of these are factors of free play, but a lot of games or activities in free play will allow the healthy risk of these kinds. Free play allows kids to take risks without breaking someone’s trust.
Free play also builds social skills. My generation is full of kids that lack social skills, but why? I believe this has to do with a lack of free play. Free play without any structure, will lead to small arguments and conflicts between children, which is completely natural, and good for children. They may argue about what game to play, where to play, over the rules, or just conflicts about completely silly and random things. Kids usually end up with reasonable solutions. If kids never learn how to resolve these conflicts on their own, when they go into the real world, how will they know what to do?
Lenore Skenazy, author of the book Free-Range Kids says, “We want our children to have a childhood that’s magical and enriched, but I’ll bet that your best childhood memories involve something you were thrilled to do by yourself. These are childhood’s magic words: ‘I did it myself!’”.
So, now you know. You know that schools need more free play in their schedule, kids need free play to take risks, and kids need free play to build social skills. Kids need to play. Play brings out who you are. Growing brains are meant to play, and they are meant to play a lot.
Play is not a privilege, it’s a right.
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