Leaf Writing

When I was a kid some friends and I discovered a way to leave secret messages for each other. We would scratch words onto the underside of a green leaf with a stick. When the leaf dried the message would disappear so only someone who saw it while it was fresh could read it.

We felt clever to have figured out how to do that and it fit in well with the sort of things we played.

Back then kids were free to "go out and play" with others in the neighborhood without adult supervision so, unlike modern kids, we used our imaginations and pretended things for many years. We might be cowboys, space explorers, animals, kings and princesses, pirates, or any number of other things.

I was lucky to live on a hill in a small town where we could climb trees, swing from ropes, throw pebbles in the creek, or run up and down our curving, one-way street without fear of traffic.

It's sad that today many older children only feel free to use their imaginations by playing video games because adults are always supervising them.

Of course there are still some kids who have discovered the fun of getting carried away into stories by reading books. And I hope the writing on the leaves of books won't ever disappear.

Imagination

A few days ago I blogged about the wonders of becoming an excellent reader and getting carried away into a book. That's one way we use our imaginations.

A while back I mentioned the dangers limiting the freedom of today's kids. Unfortunately protecting children from danger can also stifle their imaginations.

Back when kids could go out and play with other children without adult supervision they often pretended to be various sorts of characters and acted out stories until they were well into their grammar school years. It wasn't unusual for fifth graders to join with other kids of all ages and interact as pirates, princesses, cowboys, dragons, or space explorers.

However now children are constantly with others about the same age and under adult supervision. With grownups always watching, most kids stop acting out stories they make up and pretending to be fictional characters by first grade. Instead they play organized games when they're outside together.

Modern devices like cellphone apps do allow them access to imaginary worlds, but the games and interactive videos allow only limited possibilities. At least if they discover the joys of reading and immerse themselves in fiction books they can still use their imaginations.

Free Play

"Mom, can I go out to play now?"

If you're old (like me) you probably remember asking that question.

After reminding you to say "May I" in stead of "Can I," and checking to be sure you'd finished all your chores the answer was usually, "Okay" with a reminder about how to behave and when to be back home.

Then you'd rush out the front door to find your friends.

Wait a minute! Do I mean kids actually went out without adult supervision?

We sure did.

As long as the commies didn't drop an atomic bomb that day parents assumed we'd be okay.

Illegal drugs were something the papers reported were becoming a problem back in poorer sections of New York City and molestation was never mentioned in public. Only the children of rich people might get kidnapped and held for ransom and we knew to be careful not to be run over by cars.

Of course we'd often get skinned knees, someone might get a black eye in a fight and once in a while a kid might even fall out of a tree and break a bone, but nobody would get sued because of things like that. They were considered a normal part of growing up.

And we had the advantage of spending hours using our imaginations.

We might pretend to be cowboys and Indians, princesses and knights in shining armor, space explorers, detectives, horses, jungle animals, doctors, parents, or anything else we could think of. Sometimes we'd play games, but those weren't organized by adults and we could change the rules any time we agreed on new ones.

Since today's kids always have adults watching them and are usually in groups with others near the same age it's unusual for them to do pretending play after they enter grade school. For many children, electronic games are the only opportunity they have for using their imaginations.

It's a shame today's kids don't have the kind of freedom we enjoyed.

Games

When I was a kid, and for many generations before that, kids entertained themselves and each other by playing games like tag, hide and seek, jump rope, hopscotch, having races, etc. The rules were passed down from older children to younger ones with no need for adult intervention.

Now lots of kids don't even know what those games are unless they've been taught to play them in school.

Instead, they play electronic games. Is that a bad thing?

Some people say violent electronic games, like devices used for training new military recruits, can make kids comfortable with the idea of hurting or killing other people and blame the games for increased violence in our society. But I remember when people said the same thing about children playing with toy guns. Of course the old fashioned violent play was much less realistic, so the modern games might have some negative influence, especially if played excessively.

On the other hand, many of those games teach children good things like how to solve problems, and help improve their manual dexterity.

The biggest problem with electronic games is that children tend to spend too much time playing them when they should be getting exercise, but today most kids in our society can't go out to play in their neighborhoods without adult supervision like we did anyway.

Instead of considering computer games to be evil, it would make better sense for parents to control which games their kids play and how much time they spend playing them, and make sure plenty of physical activities are also included in their children's lives.