Commit Yourself to Play Each and Every Day

Busy schedules, longer work hours, sports practice, homework, dance lessons -- does this sound familiar? Growing up, do you remember a simpler time, when every night was family night? A tradition that you cherished, like spending time together with no goal in mind other than pure enjoyment of playing a game, sharing good times and just having fun.
Play of any kind should always feel like time well spent. It ought to be engaging, entertaining, personally rewarding and enormously fun. Through play, we are reminded to relax, and spend special time with loved ones and friends. Play fosters essential lifelong skills like sharing, learning to win and lose gracefully, understanding risk and rewards, and much more. It enhances our well-being and lifts our spirits, whether you are 3 or 103.We invite you to start a family tradition and rediscover the simple joy of play with the people in your life. Make a commitment to set aside a regular time each week to share a game, put together a puzzle, or just play. The traditions you start today will create a lifelong legacy of memories for your family.
5 Steps To Your New Tradition:1. Make a firm commitment. For one month have everyone agree to play games once a week. Keep this play time and stick to it! You will thank yourself as the fun becomes an anticipated part of everyone's week.2. Set the date and time. Mark your calendar for your weekly game time. Spread the word and get everyone involved. 3. Find something for everyone. Each week have one person choose a game (or puzzle) that allows everyone in the group to participate, regardless of age.4. Turn off the noise. Make a joint agreement to ignore the phone, turn off the TV, and put aside other distractions during your special time. 5. Traveling? No problem. On the road or on vacation? Choose a game and take it with you. Don't forget your camera to capture your fun memories!

Joyce says: February would be a good month to start this. Even though it is the shortest month of the year, it often feels like it will never end because we are anxious for spring to come. So make a plan to play more in February.
.

Sign up for great newsletters

from Family Communications Inc. where the mission of Fred Rogers lives on helping children and the people who care for them. This month Neighborhood News has a free quote and Feb
calendar for your computer desktop.

http://www.fci.org/index.asp

http://www.fci.org/madfeelings

The Spirit of Adult Play

After the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box. Italian Proverb

In her Exchange article, "The Spirit of Adult Play" Bonnie Neugebauer observes that many must relearn the joys of playfulness. To do so, she suggests, they must be willing to spend freely, to squander, to waste (if you will), to be extravagant with their:
Time — Play must exist in a context of timelessness. The process is valued beyond the outcome of the play, so it must be possible to continue the experience across blocks of time, even across days and weeks. The play must find its own end, just as it found its own beginning....
Sense of Self — Play requires that one forget oneself. If self-conscious about their play, about how others will view either their play or the products of their play, children and adults are crippled. Their play is distorted by other consciousness.
Sense of Order — Play demands a certain amount of chaos. There must be room for using things and doing things in new ways. Play equipment and space must be flexible to meet the changing needs of the players. There must be storage for uncompleted play, and respect for unfinished spaces. Players require a degree of uncertainty and support for taking risks. Play is nurtured when there is no labeling of wrong and right.
Joy — Play without enjoyment is just plain hard work. Players need to laugh, and boast, and practice. There are many choices to be made, and each is a challenge. Play brings out the best in each of us.

"Learning is a Conversation"

Bev Bos often says that "Life is not a test, it's a conversation." And that's what this article from the Daily Exchange Made me think about. Pay close attention to the RED words at the end of the article. Those meant the most to me..... I have noticed that if every moment of wonder in a child's life is made into a "teachable moment" by asking a "test question" (one you already know the answer to!) soon the child will stop sharing these moments with you and soon after that stop conversing with you altogether. Keeping the conversation going at 4, 5, and 6 is vital if you want them to still be conversing with you at ages 14, 15, and 16. It also helps if they know that you "wonder" about things too, don't have all the answers, and set an example of seeking out information about your questions.

"In her article in the January/February 2009 issue of Exchange, "Think Before you (Inter)act: What it Means to Be an Intentional Teacher," Anne Epstein provides guidance on how to support child-guided learning and when to engage in adult-guided learning. In the area of language and literacy, she provides these ideas on child-guided learning:"Children learn to listen, initiate, and respond in conversation with others. This verbal facility is a foundation of ­literacy development. To promote these essential skills:
Be careful not to dominate when talking with ­children. Lean toward more child than adult talk.
Model active listening. Wait for children to form and express their thoughts. Get down on their level, make eye contact, repeat or clarify what they say to show you have heard them.
Play games with verbal directions, such as Simon Says (but without winners and losers).
Expand children’s verbalizations. For example, if a toddler says, 'Me, banana', you might say, 'You are going to eat that banana.'
Support sociodramatic play by providing props for role playing and pretending.
Pretend to misunderstand ambiguous gestures to encourage children to add words. Use humor. For example, if a child points to his/her head for help with a hat, put a shoe there instead.
Use questions but not in excess. Ask questions that encourage children to think and expand their answers. Avoid questions that have a single brief or ‘correct’ answer.
Talk to other adults in the presence of children. Model good syntax and varied vocabulary."