Playing Means More than Just Fun

Once the boys had moved beyond more than just eating, sleeping and needing a nappy change their day was filled first with rattles and squeaky toys and then with noisy musical things which all seemed to play the same tune!  As they have grown up play has been integral to their learning and has taught them so much without them even realising it.

The importance of play cannot be underestimated, but it is time consuming and sometimes difficult for parents to know how to play with their children.  Ribena did a study over of over 2,000 parents and (in their Ribena Plus Play Report) whilst 92% believe imaginary play is important 16% don't know how to create it. In fact there is so little to create.  If you follow your child's lead they will take you into their new world with whatever it holds and often they just want you to be there to go along for the ride. Whatever jobs need to be done, they will not go anywhere, and whilst 27% of parents feel guilty for playing instead of doings chores, why not leave them for a few minutes and have some fun! It is hard when we worry about everything we have to do, but the time with the children won't come back and sometimes having some fun with them relaxes us so it makes it easier to go back to the essentials.

In my old work I used to have a lot of large cardboard boxes to package items for courier deliveries.  The minute the box was left lying around it became my son's new best toy.  It was a place to hide, a home for his teddy bears, and it is a shame that Ribena's report show only 13% of kids still play with household items whilst 70% play video games and 90% watch DVDs.  

What is good though is that Ribena want to encourage parents to 'rediscover the joys of exploratory play' and there are downloadable help sheets on the Ribena Plus website http://blog.ribena.co.uk/posts/the-ribena-plus-play-report/
 to give ideas and tips for easy play ideas that are fun and inexpensive.  There are so many pressures on all of us, and with 30% of parents aware their kids spend too much time watching TV let's get Ribena to help and get back to playing.