Most of the time, children know what to do when we leave them alone.
Sometimes they don’t . . . if they haven’t had much practice with self-directed play!
But the interior life of a child is rich, deep, wide, and self-sustaining when it has had many, many opportunities to get to know itself. If it has had loving adults who facilitate but don’t get in the way.
Sometimes well-meaning parents and teachers are accidentally too intrusive: with photo ops, suggestions, ideas, or actual supervision.
What are your favorite ways to facilitate a child’s self-directed play? A good recorded story? a pile of cardboard boxes? a heap of colorful scarves and hats? green space or woodsy space or puddle or creek or sandbox?
A healthy child knows exactly what she wants to do when nobody is making her do something else! Let that little boy dig – or drive his cardboard box “truck” – or romp and stomp like a dinosaur!
Just don’t get in the way.