Unstructured Outside Play!

Last year Maria and I took the Lunch Bunch children to the open field just a block away to play. We brought a parachute and some balls with us in case we needed to provide a bit of structured play. When we arrived at the field the children played independently for only fifteen minutes then we took out the parachute, foam balls and after that played a game of Red Light. Unfortunately children do not have a lot of opportunities to experience unstructured play time.

On Friday Sasha and I walked on over to the field with the Tel Aviv children. We brought some scarfs, a parachute, foam balls and Shabbat snack with us. It was a very different experience than last year for me. All morning long the children played together independently. When we arrived the children ran over to the baseball field and started acting out a game of baseball! The pitcher stood on the mound and pitched to the batter at home plate. The batter swung his/her pretend bat and started to run the bases. It was a sight to behold the children took turns pitching, batting and running!

As the children explored all the nooks and crannies in and around the field they took time to smell the flowers(picked a few), noticed/talked about the bright blue sky with white clouds, walked/ran on the "cool" rock path, and picked up sticks (which we brought back for our Sukkah).

We all sat down together to enjoy a Shabbat snack. Bruce the shark joined us for some yummy challah and some wonderful conversation. After our snack the children initiated a game of hide and seek. There were not many places to hide but they made do. There was one tree and two garbage cans.

At one point during the course of the morning the children asked if they could play with the foam balls and the scarfs. They played with the balls and scarfs for about seven minutes and then they found something else that interested them(the game of hide and seek).

The children, Sasha and I had a wonderful morning playing at the field! We will do it again real soon!