Our children will be returning to days of regimented learning when they return to school next week. Unlike previous years, Lela won’t be learning Mandarain, Spanish, theater or knitting. After school, she’ll probably walk home, perhaps with friends from her neighborhood, and play and relax.

During the last twenty years, our kids have been robbed of at least eight hours of leisurely, spontaneous and unstructured play time every week. Compared to children from sixty years ago, it’s fairly obvious that our children’s ability to regulate their own behavior, control their impulses and understand their emotions is much worse. Studies have shown an alarming trend in self-regulation; our five-year-olds behave like 1940′s three-year-olds, and our seven-year-olds have the same emotional capacity as five-year-olds from that same period.

Unstructured recreation, led by children, add to a child’s emotional health, as well as their social, physical and intellectual skills. Unstructured play can teach children to successfully work in groups, as well as how to negotiate, resolve conflicts, share, speak up, and regulate their own behavior and emotions. Another study has revealed that children who attend traditional, academic preschools do not have an educational advantage in reading or math over children who attended preschools that focused on play – but they did have elevated test anxiety, decreased creativity, and more negative feelings about school than children who attended play-based preschools. Read the rest of this entry »