Home is the place where our kids spend most of their time everyday. This is particularly true for families with very young children. Many parents may send their children to childcare outside their houses. But still, the large proportion of their time is spent at home.
So we really need to think of how to make our home a nice place for our kids to play. Of course this does not mean turning your home into playing field or theme park. What we need to think is how to give them enough opportunities to play in the spaces that we already have in our home.
The importance of play space has been mentioned by Mary D. Sheridan, an expert in children’s development and play. She believed that we can create play opportunity for children by providing play things, play fellows, play time and play space. So what shall we do to make sure that we give enough opportunity for our kids at home to play?
Enough space:
We need to make sure that there are some spaces where they can play freely. These can be anywhere in the house, as long as they are big enough for the kids to move around.
Freedom for exploration:
Size is not the only thing that matters. We should also give the kids freedom and opportunity for exploration. We need to allow them to do what they like. Very often this also means allowing them to experiment and make a mess.
Safety:
Another important thing is to ensure safety in the spaces where they play. While it is important to give freedom, it is also necessary to set some limits to ensure that our kids play safely.