Do you remember when you were a child? When I think back, what I remember is quite different to the childhood my daughter, and many of her little friends, experience today.
As the world has speeded up, it seems we have a constant need for stimulation and this transfers to our children. I think my mum was a great mum. While I remember doing things with her, I can never remember her playing with me. I do remember playing on my own with my toys and being perfectly happy doing so.
I think guilt has a big part to play, it certainly does for me. We only have to glance at our phones when our kids are with us and the guilt descends. We feel a need to be micromanaging our children. Making sure they are occupied every minute of the day! Is this what’s really best for them?
With their after school clubs, weekend classes and nursery or school too, kid’s have A LOT of structure in their lives. This is why free play is so important. Letting children have the freedom and space to play without structure is an essential part of their development. Free play allows for the development of social skills. Let’s them learn about the world and also helps them to develop physical and cognitive skills.
Play England defines ‘Free Play’ as
“…children choosing what they want to do, how they want to do it and when they want to stop and try something else. Free Play has no external goals set by adults and has no adult imposed curriculum. Although adults usually provide the space and resources for Free Play and might be involved, the child takes the lead and the adults respond to cues from the child.”
Petits Filous has just launched its #PetitsFilousPlayFree project to ensure Free Play doesn’t become a thing of the past. This campaign aims to champion Free Play and its benefits by encouraging parents to embrace free unstructured play every day.
Free play taps into kid’s imagination and encourages them to think creatively. As adults we have a lot of context that we have developed over the years. If we’re not careful we can impose context and ‘our way’ onto our kids, before they’ve been able to think creatively and use their imaginations. Free Play has also been seen to help their negotiation skills and team building.
We don’t need to jump in at every moment and fill the gaps in for our kids. Just the opposite, in fact, we need to stand back and let them explore the world their way.
To launch this campaign, Petits Filous is working with Anita Cleare, parenting expert and co-founder of The Positive Parenting Project.
Free Play isn’t about just leaving your kids to it. It’s about letting them take the lead. They decide what to play with, how and for how long; it’s child-driven. Petits Filous is a fab cool snack that Ava loves when she’s Free Playing and all the other times really! They even have Petits Filous pouches to make snacking on the go even easier!
As parents we must be willing to let our kids get bored. This is not a reflection on us as parents. We aren’t failing. Getting bored helps kids think creatively and to look for solutions. It’s important not to always fill boredom with the TV or the tablet.
When I was a kid I remember playing for hours on my own in the garden. Sometimes with our old dog, Jack, Sometimes, just with my trusty toy friends. I remember playing with my Barbies and being perfectly content with my own imagination and company. Ava is just the same as I was. She loves being outside and adores animals, especially our dogs Lily and Lou Lou.
Playing freely in an unstructured way helps them to understand cause and effect. They jump in a puddle, they get soaked. This learning is immediate and it happened through a concrete action, rather than trying to absorb the theory.
Petits Filous is a favourite in our house. Sometimes, I think Ava lives on breadsticks and yoghurt. It’s a win as she loves Petits Filous AND I know it provides her with calcium and vitamin D, which are important for healthy bones (iii). One way kids’ can get their daily calcium needs is to make sure they get 3 portions of dairy a day. For example, a glass of milk, a piece of cheddar-type cheese and 1 small pot of Petits Filous fromage frais. Vitamin D is important too as it helps our absorb calcium from food (iii).
How much free play do your kids have? Do you feel the need to intervene and structure all of your kids activities?
Disclosure: “I’m working with Petits Filous and BritMums promoting the #PetitsFilousPlayFree campaign about the importance of free play.”
iii) EU Authorised Claim: ‘Calcium and vitamin D are needed for normal growth and development of bone in children’
Comments 35
Mine love Petits Filous too – and I have to admit, so do I! It’s reassuring to know that it gives a boost of Vitamin D. I really think we need something extra in the winter months.
Free play is so important. I work with teens and sometimes very bright kids lack initiative and confidence because they’ve always had a time table, an agenda etc. I have to make a conscious effort to encourage mine to play freely.
You’re so right — one of the hardest things is to refrain from jumping in and “helping” or “stimulating” our children when their own imaginations can fill the gap.
She is so gorgeous I love the pics of her eating the yoghurt. Free Play is so important and I can’t wait to find out how we can incorporate it into our day even more xx
Beautiful Photos!!
My daughter loves her swing, and plays for hours on it, pretending its a unicorn, or a spaceship, or the top of a tree! Its lovely to watch 🙂
I think we played more when we were kids, I remember having a gameboy (you can probably guess my age now!) but it wasn’t until I was quite old, kids have devices a lot younger now. Anything that encourages kids to play more has to be a good thing!
Gorgeous pictures of Ava! My two love free play and we find it works best outside where they can build dens in the hedge and dash about from one thing to the next. We keep a supply of bubble mixture and snacks like Petits Filous by the kitchen door – works a treat! 🙂
I can definitely relate to this. When I was a child I used to love playing outdoors for hours with my siblings. It was so much fun to invent new games and use our imagination. And yes, playing with the barbies is one of my favourite memories too. We also do free play and I think it is definitely the best for our kids.
It is such a fun campaign and we are really enjoying the challenge
Gorgeous photos Aby, Ava is so like you! I totally get that guilty feeling for not doing “enough” to entertain my boys so it will be interesting to see how we get on over the next few weeks x
Free play is so important for kids. As is vitamin d so it’s great so much is included in petits Filous
This is such a good campaign! Free play is really important. I credit my imagination and creative skills to the time I had independently to play and figure things out as a child. Definitely one I’m going to try not to feel guilty about as he grows older.
My kids were brought up on Petits Filous – they are delicious and the perfect size for them. I agree with the campaign kids need a breather to think and imagine for themselves x
Living in Scotland, we get less light than those south, so we take Vit D supplement all year. I do think helping it along with things like Petits Filous is a great idea – My kids don’t get as much free play as I would like – they choose other things to do like computer games or watching TV. Today we are going to sit down and write a list of outdoor activities they want to do this year and see if we can start to plan some of them.
Free play is such an important part in a child’s development. When I’m at home and I hear my three year old daughter playing lovely by herself I think ‘no I won’t go to her, I’ll let her be’. It can be easy to disturb them and sometimes it’s just lovely to watching from the side lines! X
Couldn’t agree with this! When I was a kid, my sisters and I used to run round and play with nothing, just use our imagination. To be honest, I’m bad at letting my kids just get on with it. I need to get better.
We only really ever do free play. One of my daughter;’s loves playing with Happyland and Sylvanian families, she will play for hours making up stories. My son used to do the same with his trains. They have so much structure in schools, that it is only fair to let them have free reign. It helps them and us to discover who they are and who they will become – robots not included! Love the yoghurts too!
my son loves these petits filous especially the strawberry ones lol. My son loves the outdoors which is great as he gets exposed all sorts yet builds up the immune system and grows his ability for imaginative play
We love free play and encourage our kids to embrace their imagination & creativity and just allow them the space to just be kids. We love Waldorf Steiner’s approach.
Free play is very important, I’m trying to encourage it with my 3 year old, he’s very reluctant. Needs to constantly be given ideas of what to do, I’m trying to refrain from giving him suggestions.
Lovely photos!
It’s so true. If my daughter’s are left to their own devices they’ll create their own entertainment. Sometimes I’ll just give them a cardboard box, or some interesting looking packaging and they’ll incorporate it into their play.
I used to spend hours in the garden with my brother making dens and pretending to be 007! On my own I’d make fairy potions from leaves, petals and water (probably destroying my parents plants in the process!)
Freeplay is so, so, so important. My kids are always with their toys thinking up stories. They do get bored, especially when money is tight and we can’t go out much but when they play together when I.haven’t promted them to.its so.cute and lovely to hear their little voices and imagination.xx
Our son does a good bit of free play at home. I hate the TV going on as soon as he’s in from pre-school so I often leave him to sort himself out. He’ll play in the garden, play with his lego or his hot wheels. Yes he gets bored at times but as you’ve pointed out that can be good for them. I think this is a great campaign to ensure fee play doesn’t become a thing of the past.
Gorgeous photos! Petit filous is a favourite in our house too! Sometimes with all the busy-ness going on I must remember to make time for free play- weekends are generally all about this for us!
Oh she’s such a cutie,and clearly loves Petits filous. I completely understand how important free play is, it quite lovely to watch too.
Can’t beat a petit filous yogurt – sums up my childhood!
Even adult life, if I’m poorly!
Ava is so photogenic.
Oh my goodness, she looks so grown up all of a sudden!! I am totally guilty of booking the kids into after school clubs but we keep the weekends free so hopefully it is a good balance
“Getting bored helps kids think creatively and to look for solutions. It’s important not to always fill boredom with the TV or the tablet.” I think I need this tattooed on to me! I’m not very good at being bored, and I think I’ve passed this to my kids – I always give them options of things they could do rather than letting them get bored!
Free play is incredibly important for all children. My kids will happily spend hours in the garden making potions. They love it!
This brought back so many memories of my own childhood when imagination played such a big part in days. I think it’s really important to let kids be kids and just their imaginations run away with them
Debbie
I couldn’t agree more! Free play is so important to us (although we have our fair share of scheduled activities too…!). Kudos to Petit Filous for this campaign. Also the mummy guilt for even glancing at your phone is spot on – I feel like this so often! Great post x
PS I sometimes have to cut my kids off from the Petit Filous because they’d eat them for every meal if I didn’t haha
I am totally guilty of imposing how I think something should be done in the boys! I did t realise it until this campaign. It’s going to be difficult for me to take a step back! She’s looking so grown up now! Hope you are all settled in x
So important for them. I studied this a lot and have seen how empowering it is for children to take to lead. Really grows their confidence and creativity x
We have free play a lot, I try to get a balance between structured activities, and time for them to just play. I think it’s great to build their imagination.
She looks like she’s having so much fun. We love the free play concept too. Commenting on behalf of BritMums.