Posted May 13, 2023

Race You to the Fire Truck!

Today we’re exploring older kids. If your kids aren’t there yet – brace yourself. If you have some over 7, you have survived this part. As we explore how kids mentally and emotionally are turning into adults, it is sometimes a challenge.

As the parent, we don’t want them to stay a child dependent on us. They are testing the world. At some point, they must leave home. If we’ve done a good job, they become successful adults who love you because you let them try – win or fail – but you were always there for them. It’s hard to let go. But that’s not their problem.

So here’s what is happening to an 8 year old as they grow....

“In these years, thought is progressively detached from perception or action, and the child becomes able to organize experience into the groupings of class, relation and number. He begins to understand concepts such as the conservation of matter (the fact that a change in form, e.g., a lump of clay, does not result in an increased or decreased amount of matter) and reversibility (a series of steps can be done in reverse, bringing one to the point of original departure.

This phase is characterized by an intense interest in playing games with rules, since the more systematic patterns of thought allows the child to enter into more complex social relationships. The ability to understand the reversibility of a process also makes it possible for one to appreciate the point of view of another individual. Most games with rules make their appearance when the child is about seven or eight years old, precisely because this marks the beginning of his ability to share with another person a common goal, and the capacity to recognize and to accept mutual responsibilities toward the achievement of that goal. This is the phase of social cooperating among children, when group activity and team efforts become possible and important.

At this time the child also becomes interested in the world of concrete objects and events. He wants to know how things work; he is curious about nature. The curiosity is “concrete” – it is best satisfied by the actual manipulation of the things in question and actual observation of the processes under study rather than abstract discussion about the principles involved. The child wants to see, smell, and touch for himself, and his curiosity can best be engaged and satisfied by firsthand experience.”

– excerpt from “Design for Play” by Richard Dattner AIS 1969, Page 29

Sorting and organizing gemstones, challenging friends to tether-ball or who can swing higher, anticipating results (running down the teeter-totter), team play (I’m the firetruck driver – you’re the fire chief).

I’ve seen older kids come to Discovery Park with books and tablets – 5 minutes and they’re out there exploring and playing (never read another page in their book). I see it in adults too. This place is so contagious, they want to join the fun. Come let your kid out at Discovery Park Ohio.

That’s what good play is all about.

No directions, nobody telling you that
“you can’t do it that way”.

It’s pure discovery!