Childhood and all the perks of being a child is the best part before we have to grow up and become an adult where the responsibilities become greater. It is also the time when we gain skills and knowledge not only from school, but from play that is unstructured and not on an electrical device. Many skills, that we as adult continue to use on a daily basis, are developed and strengthened through unstructured play.  A few of these skills are communication, problem solving, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, and self and body awareness through physical literacy.

As mentioned in April 2’s post, allowing your child not to be scheduled is an important way to nurture creativity and imagination. These skills have to be nurtured and encouraged by allowing your child to play freely. Unstructured activities such as Lego, playdough, colouring, or toys involving building structures not only strengthen hand muscles and help with fine motor skills and dexterity but strengthen creativity and imagination.

A couple of really good books to read are The Whole-Brain Child by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, and The Hurried Child by David Elkind.  I have set up a link to an article in relation to David Elkind’s book.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-effects-of-hurrying-children-through-childhood_b_3824197

Another good website about the importance of play is

https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/119/1/182

Finally, I have also included an article about decreasing fine motor skills that I thought was interesting:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-14/ipad-generations-fingers-not-ready-to-write/9143880