Everyone agrees that kids (and adults for that matter) need less screen time. And there have been numerous articles validating the importance of free time and being bored for overall mental and emotional health.
But how do we encourage kids to choose to spend their afternoons doodling or building a fort over binge-watching Netflix?
Melissa Bernstein, founder of Melissa & Doug (your favorite puzzles growing up), believes that imagination benefits from the same support, encouragement, and training that athletes benefit from. Bernstein argues that "imagination, like a sport, requires practice, training, motivational speeches, rewards and extreme patience," (How We're Endangering Our Kids' Imaginations)
At CCC we are so happy when we hear campers report back to us that they tried out the projects we did in camp on their own at home. This last week two campers sent us a video of them adding tunnels and zip-lines made from toilet paper rolls to their tree forts during a play-date.
Ultimately you could say that is our goal; to empower kids by providing them with some creative building blocks and resources to explore on their own. Building muscle memory, like an athlete, if you will. So that next time they're bored, they have options to consider that feel familiar. So that they aren't as intimidated by a blank white canvas, or a fridge with no frozen pizza. So that there is possibility.
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