Just...play!

[kellyskidz!]

Kids don't know how to play anymore!

2 after schoolies in today and own daughter (all 5). Set up an amazing (if I say so myself!) Post Office in the Home Corner
Everything was there, till, money, stamps, envelopes, old magazines, paper to write letters on, blank cards to send and cardboard boxes for parcels. Even a huge post box made from an old red box
They come in and say WOW, I explain briefly what to do, leave them to the fun and start to make tea. 2 mins later they come over to me..
'She won't share the stamps' share please
'I don't know what to write on my letter' how about happy birthday Mummy
'Its not her birthday' well write hello Mummy
'Im going to write Happy Birthday Mummy...'
'How much are the stamps?' 40p
'My letter won't fit in the envelope' fold it up so it fits
'The boxes don't fit in the post box' no you send them in the post van
'We haven't got a post van!' Pretend!
Come on kids work with me lol! If someone gave me a post office at 5 years old my mum wouldn't have seen me for a few days anyone with me? Kids these days.. Good job they're cute!

[scottishlass]

Totally agree - would have kept me happy for days!!

My oldest daughter wasn't great at playing away but my youngest now 7 has and still does play away happily for hours by herself and with my mindees and her friends - she has a crazy imagination so keeps herself going for hours!! I don't mind buying her whatever toys she asks for as always plays with them where as my oldest would not even want them out the box!!

Have 2 mindees both coming up to 18 months and one plays away happily and the other will only play when I am playing!

Xx

[Tulip]

your post office sounds great!
I can't wait to set up a role play area (so I can have a go)
Perhaps thats what they need If you show them what to do by being the clerk and then the customer
Hopefully they will spend as long playing with it as you spent setting it up!

[sarah707]

I struggle to get my after schoolers to do any role play except schools

Yours sounds brilliant!

[greanan]

I agree - I've a few who can't play unless I'm beside them showing them how

[TooEarlyForGin?]

Totally agree, and the little ones are getting worse as well, I have 2 nearly 3 yo's and after any planned activity will sit and say "what are we doing next" in a whiny voice. I suggest things but they look blankly at me. All the parents are really good, but when I think about it their days are filled with activities, one of my 2 year olds, spends 3 days with me 1 day with nanna, swimming lessons, ballet lessons, and at weekends they are always out, zoo, farm, national trust place, I have no idea when they do their own shopping, washing and cleaning.

We are heading towards children that wont know how to self-motivate if we aren't careful.

[Nicola Carlyle]

My after schoolers range 4 years to 10 years. They are a real mixed bunch. Have some that only want to play with cars and garage/car mats, some that come in and totally rearrange my toy kitchen (I LOVE THOSE DAYS - so neat and tidy and REALLY makes me smile. I'm forever great full), some who only ever want to draw or colour, some who like to use my doctor and builder box to operate son people and chop their legs off (usually my assistant bless her) and some that just want to watch tv. We generally have all of this EVERY DAY!!! It's exhausting but they love it. We have now introduced Simon says and sleeping lions etc very near home time and it really does make a difference.

If I had set up a post office I think I may have had the same reactions you had. Do you think that maybe the children hav'nt ever really visited a post office before so its a bit unknown? I think if you keep going with it they will soon get the hang of it and really engage in it. There us so much pressure on kids these days to "grow up" and "act their age" whatever that may be.

I think I may have to have taken over as post musters though and joined in. I'd have hooked for ages. X

[yummyripples]

I think children play with toys too much to develop a real imagination. Don't get me wrong I love toys and my house is full of different types but I am introducing more normal items into the playroom. For instance my little ones love handbags and jewellery and can spend hours (well a bit of time) putting the jewellery on, taking it off, putting it in the bags etc. They like thimbles, Russian dolls, acorns, real kitchen stuff like scales and mortar and pestl. One little one has a ball with wallpaper borders. It can be great fun.
My own little one turns pieces of paper into superheroes and as for toilet roll tubes. ......

[Simona]

Kids don't know how to play anymore!

2 after schoolies in today and own daughter (all 5). Set up an amazing (if I say so myself!) Post Office in the Home Corner
Everything was there, till, money, stamps, envelopes, old magazines, paper to write letters on, blank cards to send and cardboard boxes for parcels. Even a huge post box made from an old red box
They come in and say WOW, I explain briefly what to do, leave them to the fun and start to make tea. 2 mins later they come over to me..
'She won't share the stamps' share please
'I don't know what to write on my letter' how about happy birthday Mummy
'Its not her birthday' well write hello Mummy
'Im going to write Happy Birthday Mummy...'
'How much are the stamps?' 40p
'My letter won't fit in the envelope' fold it up so it fits
'The boxes don't fit in the post box' no you send them in the post van
'We haven't got a post van!' Pretend!
Come on kids work with me lol! If someone gave me a post office at 5 years old my mum wouldn't have seen me for a few days anyone with me? Kids these days.. Good job they're cute!

This could be of interest
School starting age: the evidence | University of Cambridge

[kellyskidz!]

They played with it a little more today but its still kind of sad to me that they have to keep coming to me and actually asking HOW to play. HOW do we pretend that we are a Post Lady etc.
It's like they've lost the imagination we used to have, so I agree with a previous poster, they have too many toys that don't encourage imagination. They don't have to pretend a table is a piano, they have toy piano, the don't have to pretend a cardboard box is a car, they have a toy car in the garden
If there's a positive out of this I'm seriously reevaluating the resources I have and thinking of bringing it back to basics. Just simple, imaginative play! Obviously we will have toys but 'blank canvas'' like an empty cardboard box, a bunch of twigs from the garden, they could be anything!
I don't blame anyone for the lack of imaginative skills, as one of the children asking how do we play with this was my own child, they've all been to the Post Office with me and so know what it is and what happens there, and they are all old enough to pretend (I was in my own make believe world at 5-6) and the reason I wasn't as involved in the game as I'd like to be was because I was making tea
I'd thought I could leave them to have a fab game while I made tea and have to drag them away when tea was ready but maybe I was too optimistic lol! Bless them, they had a good go at it but it really made me realise they genuinely didnt KNOW how to imagine a Post Van because a replica wasn't stuck there right in front of them xx

[Simona]

Children play develops very deeply at around age 3...then goes deeper at 4 and 5 years of age when parallel play becomes co-operative and very interactive and children become aware of the world around them and come out of 'egocentricity'

see Tina Bruce for the 12 features of play.....the best advocate of play
Blogs For My Early Years Teaching Course: Tina Bruce's 12 Features of Play and My Experiences through Placement

What do we do? ...send them to school at 3 and stare at whiteboards!
Discuss!