“It is the child’s playfulness that renders an activity play. As such, playfulness is recognized as the essence or spirit of play.”
—Kelly Christian, from The construct of playfulness
I love this photo. The caption is “Football outside Jakarta.” This image of four boys with their exuberant leaps and single-pointed focus on that white ball midair communicates so vividly the spirit of play.
According to Denise Pope, Senior Lecturer at Stanford University Graduate School of Education, young people today are enrolled in school for longer periods of time. In the last 10–20 years, the length of the school day has increased and the number of kids enrolled in extracurricular activity has increased. Time for free, unstructured play and kid-directed adventures has diminished dramatically, with a tendency towards overscheduling spilling over into Summer. (You can listen to a 16-minute Harvard Edcast on the topic with Denise Pope here.)
I’ve noticed that in our high-pressure, overscheduled lives, it is all too easy to lose track of playfulness. And when we lose track of playfulness, we cease to value it. This week in my reading, I came across the article “Summertime, Playtime,” written by Leah Shafer in the Harvard Graduate School of Education newsletter, Usable Knowledge. Drawing on work by Ben Mardell and Lynneth Solis of Project Zero (I’m a fan of Project Zero for many years), the article offers 6 suggestions for rediscovering play in an overscheduled world. You can read the whole article here (and I recommend you do!).
One suggestion struck me in particular:
- Model play. “There has to be a culture of adult play in order for children to play as well.”
How are you modeling play? As you consider the question, keep this Mardell comment in mind.
My take is that any activity can be play or not play. The secret sauce is playfulness.
— Ben Mardell, researcher and educator, Project Zero
Notice where playfulness is happening in your life and in your children’s lives. As you notice playfulness more, your ability to nurture a playful household will grow. Summer offers a great opportunity to practice. Like the boys with their laser focus on the ball, put your focus on playfulness, not on screentime, and see what happens.
Here’s an invitation: Write me and share a surprising moment of playfulness that you observe—either your own playfulness, or your child’s, or a moment you witness with another person (or creature) in your life. I’ll schedule a video chat with you.
Upcoming Event
On July 10, 4–5 pm Pacific, 7–8 pm Eastern, I’ll be doing the next Mindful Digital Life Q&A (free). We’ll focus on the skills we need today to create Mindful Digital Life in the family. I hope you can join us. You can register here.
