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Home › Articles › Play Time › Indoor Explorers

Indoor Explorers

Having a Blast When You Can't Play Outside

By Kelly Burgess

Pages:  1  

It was one of those "dog days" of late summer, a day when it was so humid, the air seemed to get caught in your eyelashes. The young visitor to Margaret Lasek's Richland, Penn., home had to sidle around a motley fort in the middle of the family room floor to get to the dining area. Small faces, looking as fierce as tiny, round-cheeked children can, peeked out at the new arrival before he finally dove into the back entrance to join them.

Year-round, there are days when it's inappropriate for a child to play outside. The good news is that it's not a bad thing for kids to be inside as long as they're not just plopped in front of the television or playing video games. Instead, as Lasek does with her four children, encourage them to become indoor explorers.

Learning Opportunities
June Oberlander, author of Slow and Steady Get Me Ready (Xulon Press, 2002), says this type of indoor play can increase a child's attention span and help them with skills like organization and autonomy. It's also very helpful for a parent to get involved with the child's play.

"A child listens better when he's focused on a fun activity," says Oberlander. "When the parent is guiding the activity, this increases his aptitude for listening. In addition, taking things out, using them and then putting them back shows cause and effect and how to be organized. As children get older, this type of parental guidance will help them find activities on their own."

Tried and True Ideas
Oberlander's suggestions for indoor play are very simple and don't need any special equipment. With toddlers, create that kitchen band or perfect fort, or dig in the closet for some dress-up fun. Small children also love pretending to make phone calls or "cooking" on a stove made from a cardboard box.

For older children, you can create an easy scavenger hunt or give up on ever finding the mates to all those socks and make puppets with glue, markers, paint and buttons. Sofas make great backdrops for the final production.

And, like Lasek, don't worry about a neat and orderly house. Although she had her hands full with picking up after playtime was over, Lasek says the afternoon of entertainment the forts provided her four small children and their friends was worth it. She even managed to sneak in 30 minutes with a good book while they conquered their imaginary worlds.

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