Just Ask Alice

What if their days were filled with real life experiences–hands on, sensory and language rich, whole body and relationship-based experiences? You know, from helping choose fruit in the grocery store, to waiting in line or for their turn, to curling up in a pile of blankets and tucking their doll in for a nap, to fixing an owie, to navigating upset feelings, to figuring out sharing, to testing how high they can climb or how far they can jump or how tall the blocks can be stacked or how many pieces of play dough make enough pie to share with all their stuffed guys…and even how long they can test-test-test us to see if what we say, we mean and will do (aka button pushing!)

What would be different if you knew with certainty that your child was getting what s/he needed to grow strong, from the inside out? To be curious, creative, a thinker? To feel confident and content? To be capable and competent? To navigate their days and all the day brings in ways that strengthen them? 

What has become quite clear is how little digital devices/screen time help our young children in healthy, growing, learning ways. That more often then not they undermine the very growth we intend for our children. Let’s put them away and break out The Old Stuff.

This Old Stuff? It is TIMELESS. Tried and true. Truly learning-rich. The way children interact with this Old Stuff has their brain firing away, connecting all those amazing neural pathways, it has them thinking, feeling, imagining, creating, problem solving…EXPERIENCING life, their ideas, their capable and competent selves. How cool is that? And oh so simple…

Crayons. Markers. Story books. Paper. Play-dough. Water! Dirt . Dolls that are simply dolls. Blocks! Legos without directions. Empty boxes! Pots and pans from the kitchen. Oh so much!

Thank you to Rae Pica Keynotes & Consulting for a fabulous poster that reminds us how valuable the simple, basic, Old Stuff is for our children’s experiences to be learning-rich.                   

With JOY,

Alice

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