The Value Of Play

I just read a recommendation form the American Academy of Pediatrics that confirms a belief I have long had. It says that what children really need for a healthy development is more good old fashioned play.
Yep! It's not the scheduled activities and study that is most missing from the lives of the little ones, it's the absence of play time as parents tend to load their children's schedules with classes and activities designed to help them "excel" academically. It seems that the pediatricians are in unanimous agreement that spontaneous free play- playing game sin the neighborhood, catching frogs or butterflies, playing with toys that spark the imagination, organizing clubs etc.- often gets sacrificed to excessive academic study sessions.
The doctors don't blame parents for believing the notion that if junior isn't studying or cramming all day he will be a dummy and never amount to anything in life, because that is the modern societal idea of good parenting theses days. Social pressures and marketing by people selling structured study and the like about creating " a superior child" bear hard on parents and often cause them to severely restrict play in favor of study.
Kids are seen as objects to be crammed full of information, not small humans who need to find things to do and learn on their own. Numerous studies consistently show that unstructured play has many benefits school and study can not give. It can help kids become creative, discover what their own inner passions are, develop problem solving skills, relate to others and adjust better to social settings (even to the school setting itself). I think that play was the most important part of my childhood and I thank my parents for letting me play rather than pressuring me to study to much or engage in all structured activities.
Play is so important to kids, even older kids and a lack of free time to "play" can stress kids and can eventually turn them into them dull and/or unhappy adults. So I think the structured activities can be useful, learning in any setting, even structured is good. But play for kids may be even more important for kids to make the world the way they want it, to fantasize and to dream...and it's great for the overall (as opposed to only the academic) intellectual, social and behavioral development of kids.
How old do you have to be to purchase an automobile? How about three years old? Haha I guess that's the age of consent on one Internet site that sell cars because three-year-old Jack Neal bought one.
Yep...little Jack loves cars so much that while his mother's back was turned he bought a Barbie-pink Nissan Figaro for nearly $16,000 on eBay. "I had just come off the computer and I thought I had logged off, I came out of eBay," his mother Rachel told the British Broadcasting Corp. on Monday. "Jack jumped on the chair, went straight in, found the page and bought the car." Unable to read, Jack likely used the "buy it now" option to make the purchase. The first time the Neals, from Sleaford in Eastern England, knew of the sale was when they received an e-mail from auto dealer David Jones, who thought he had made his first Internet sale.
Jones, from Worcestershire, England, saw the funny side and said he will not hold the Neals to their purchase. The car will be re-listed later. "I've got a 2 1/2-year-old son myself and I don't think he would be able to do this, although he's bright," he said. Jack denied all blame. Asked if he had made the purchase, he simply squirmed and muttered, "No...". Given Jack's early ability to lie innocently, he might want to try a political career next.