NO MORE POLICE & THIEF
Cast
your mind back to when you were young. What did you do after school?
Chances are you tossed your bag in a corner, then dashed out to play,
play, play. We had police and thief, hantam bola, rounders, marbles,
spider fights, zero point.
Our children don't play police and thief, have never heard of rounders and as for spiders, well, you have to admit the little fellas are getting a little hard to find. Often, even when they have 'free time' (time off from homework, tuition, and those piano, speech and drama, swimming, taekwondo classes), we prefer them to spend their time indoors, fearing they might fall into bad company. So how then will children be creatively expressive? This is important not only in terms of the child's emotional well being, but also in their education as well ( the catchwords being 'creative skills', 'creative thinking', 'creativity in the classroom' - you know what I mean).
Amy E.Dean, in her book Caring For the Family Soul, talks about how essential creative expression is for the children and families. She defines creative expression as 'the play and humour that family members need to experience on their own and with one another on a daily basis so that they can divorce themselves from their work, school obligations and other responsibilities in order to have the time and space to develop, through self-expression as well as interaction with others, their capacity for joy and happiness and the ability to use their imaginations'. Quite a mouthful indeed, but if you pause and think about it, it does make a lot of sense.
Dean suggests that we cut back on scheduled activities - one less work-related meeting a week for parents, one less playgroup session or one less 'enrichment' class for the children. Use this time as family time.
Again,
family time can often mean 'passive entertainment' time - sitting in
front of the television. Dean advocates active and creatively expressive
ways of doing things. Start by making a list of ten things you would
like to do, but have not allowed yourself to. It can be simple things
like taking a walk around the park, trying a new restaurant, or more
complex activities like going on a trekking holiday.
Dean feels that words like planning, rescheduling and executing should be used not just for work-related situations, but also for fun activities. So get started on an Action Plan, with your family members, for that Saturday barbeque you've been putting off for ages!
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in this section:
What's important for a P1 child