For Parents

If you want your child to do well in life, the most important thing you can do as a parent may to be to play with them. As Stuart Brown notes in his recent book, Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul, play is essential to the physical, social and emotional development of kids and parents have a huge role in making sure that kids experience safe and healthy play.

When kids are old enough to go to school, it’s even more important to make sure that play is a part of their day. New research by Dr. Ramona Barros published in the journal Pediatrics found that kids who get more than 15 minutes of recess a day show better behavior in class than those who have little or none. The problem is that most grown-ups, even the ones who work in our schools, are often not focused on how to make recess fun and playful for kids. In most schools, recess is a free-for-all. Games break down before they get going. Inevitably arguments breakout because kids don’t know the rules. Meanwhile, most of the kids just stand around on the sidelines too intimidated to play.

Recess doesn’t have to be that way. At Playworks we have seen countless schools turn around their recess and their schools by having a single trained adult on the playground. That’s why parents should grab a kickball and head out to the school playground as a volunteer coach.

Find out more about bringing play to your city here.