The Delight of Simplicity (#41)

One night, my six year old daughter was playing with a wooden tower toy that had a ramp for little cars to roll down. Though she couldn’t find the cars, she did find a handful of dice and discovered that they slid down the ramp in a satisfying way.

Trouble soon came in the form of her four year old brother, who wanted to play too. They were soon squabbling quite loudly over who had how many dice and who took whose dice from whom. The chaos was rather aggravating and I promptly took away all of the dice except one for each of them and braced myself for the protests that were sure to follow.

But they never came. The change was like a light switch – all they really needed was just one each and the room was suddenly filled with giggles and squeals of delight as they took turns with the toy.

Not all of our family squabbles end so easily, but it was a great illustration for me of the beauty and delight of simplicity.

Play Time is Essential (#11)

A recent American Academy of Pediatrics study tell us that children's development and important family time are being compromised by today's hectic lifestyle. Modern society tells us that we need to put more and more formal lessons and activities into our children's lives in order for them to succeed. Though it's hard to break from convention, reality tells us otherwise. Family time and unstructured, old-fashioned playtime shouldn't be replaced with the latest educational craze. Give yourself permission to slow down as a family and keep that desire for efficiency in check when it comes to your children. Playtime is essential. Important connections to nature, family and God are made through the informal and natural learning that comes from skipping rope, building sand castles, playing checkers, helping bake muffins, catching fireflies or voluntarily snuggling up with a good story.

Further Information:
"New AAP Report Stresses play for Healthy Development"