Playtime
Play is a God-given gift to our children
Play is an essential part of being a child and for the child’s development, creativity and well-being. Adults would do well to learn from this, too! Play is what stirs the imagination and builds a creative mind. Learning to interact with other children helps to develop social skills and the concepts of sharing and cooperation. This is the time your child will learn to laugh and understand what fun it is to be silly, make faces and generally be free to be whatever they like.
Developing positive play experiences will result in a happy and well-balanced child able to have strong and meaningful relationships with their family and friends. It will help them develop their social skills, confidence and find creative ways to solve problems and negotiate their way through life.
Physical games not only build strong and healthy bodies, but our children will learn about rules and regulations, having to take turns, being part of a team and, of course, competition and cooperation and success and failure. This is where we, as adults, sometimes go awry when too much emphasis is put on success and not on “the spirit of the game.” We all know instances of the parent at the side of the hockey rink, or the soccer field, shouting commands at their child to do this or that or to do better.
For parents, playing with our child can be one of the most rewarding things to do. Not only does it build a strong bond between parent and child, but it is also a great stress release and fun for the parent, or at least it should be. I know that some parents have a great deal of difficulty being playful. This can depend a lot on our own childhood and who played, or didn’t play, with us. If it is a first child, the chances are that a parent will be the child’s first playmate.
Playtime is a time for fun. C’est tout! (That’s all!). Except: be creative, play at the child’s level and enter into the magical world of children. YOU have everything to gain, whether you are a parent, grandparent, uncle or auntie.