play should be free!

Although studies ae gloomily predicting the end of childhood as we all knew it, this summer, it's not all bad news!

As part of the Every Child Has The Right campaign, Persil is launching its Free Play Initiative 2008, a nationwide scheme aimed at helping parents find inspirational ways for their children to express themselves through imaginative, unstructured play.

Free play helps children’s development by

• Boosting imagination and creativity
• Improving language and expression
• Keeping them active
• Reducing stress - theirs and probably yours, too!
• Improving their self-confidence
• Increasing their emotional development and social skills.

To help your kids get the most out of their play time, Persil’s Free Play Initiative focuses on five areas within play that can help a child’s development - Play, Explore, Create, Imagine and Experiment.

They've come up with a few free play ideas for kids to experiment with, under five different headings.:

Play

• Create your own circus! Invent tricks, paint your face, make outfits and come up with dance moves... Then why not draw a picture of your circus
• Ask Mum to give you four things (maybe a duvet, a wooden pole or garden canes, a rope, or a cushion), then see if you can build a den out of them to play in
• Try making your own musical instruments from things you find outdoors - put pebbles in a jar and make a shaker... tape two branches together and use flower pots as drums! Then get your friends together and form a band!

The Benefits: it keeps children fit and healthy, encourages creativity, helps with their physical development and raises self-confidence.

Explore

• Spin a globe and then pick a country and let your children spend the day learning about it. Help them look on the internet and find out five facts – you could even cook a national dish
• Explore in the garden or at your local park for interesting objects like flowers, leaves animal tracks, insects and bugs. Write down what you find and what you think they are and try and find five different types of leaves and flowers and then stick them down on a piece of paper.
• Pretend that you’ve been shipwrecked in the garden and you need to build a shelter for protection. Look around you and see what you could use to build your home.

The Benefits: When children use their imagination, it stimulates their minds and inspires curiosity. Plus, doing things in groups helps form good relationships through social play.

Create

• Make a time capsule using an old container with a tight lid. Collect things to put into it that describe your family. Ask everyone to contribute something (a recent photo, a drawing, a favourite magazine). Hide your capsule or bury it where no one will find it for a long time
• Make your own mask using paper, cardboard and string. Ask your Mum to cut two holes for eyes and decorate
• Do some model making with old cereal boxes, Smartie tubes, toilet rolls – anything you can find. Then make up games with what you’ve made.

The Benefits: Creating encourages self-expression and helps to develop a child’s imagination. It’s good for intellectual development and, best of all, you can really get dirty and not get in (so much) trouble!

Imagine

• Imagine that you are having The Queen over for tea. Bake cakes and cookies (get Mum to show you how) and invite your friends over to join you. What goodies do you think The Queen would enjoy?
• Act out a play of your favourite story with your friends or make up a story of your own. Write your play down. Here’s how it starts: “Once upon a time, there was a giant banana that grew so big, he began to...”
• Why don’t you draw a picture – maybe of you dressed as a pirate, spaceman or superhero?

The Benefits: When children use their imagination, it stimulates their mind and inspires curiosity. Plus, doing things in groups helps form good relationships through social play.

Experiment

• Why don’t you draw with crayons on a piece of paper and come up with some wild and wacky inventions – like a bedroom tidying machine?
• Gather together a collection of small things. Take each of your shapes and try drawing around them on the same piece of paper with coloured pencils. With all
  the shapes drawn colour each one in and see what new shapes you can make
• Why not do some cooking or baking with Mum? Experiment with different flavours to create something yummy.

The Benefits: Experimenting is great because it teaches children how things work. It helps develop problem-solving skills and physical and emotional growth. And it’s fun too!

To find out more about the Persil Free Play initiative 2008, and the Playday 2008 on 6th August, build a scrapbook to document your summer holiday of free play or to find out loads more fun play ideas, visit Persil.com

For more key findings and a summary of qualitative research conducted by the Persil Mumsnet Panel please log on to media site www.persil.com/medialibrary