Keep the Child in Childhood

Many are concerned about the trend of children with busier schedules than their parents.

On top of school or daycare routines, today's children often are loaded down with sports, hobbies or music activities.

As a result, many kids go without a valuable commodity: free time. They don't have unstructured time that gives them a chance to dream, time to discover and even to be bored every now and then.

For children, unstructured, unsupervised time is not wasted time nor is it a reflection of poor parenting.

Rather, the absence of distraction or activity helps children create their own worlds. With time, kids will turn to their imaginations: they'll draw, write, play with dolls and build with blocks. They'll invent their own activities to do with friends: hide-and-seek, kick-the-can, etc.

Childhood is a time when kids need to be free to pursue their natural curiosities and sense of wonder and be encouraged to become resourceful and resilient.