As I type this, my toddler is chatting away in our master bathroom. She's taken a pillow from the bed, a random doll with a Crayola "make-over", and a Kool-Aid dyed play silk we made at her Waldorf school, and she is making her own little pretend world inside the hardly-ever-used whirlpool tub. Who knew those things made great play houses! And, this is what she's been doing for the past few months. A part of that is due to this stage in her child development and another part comes from having a bit of unstructued play time so she has that space to make up her own stories, characters, and events. No doubt, much of her creativity is a result from attending her Waldorf school where children have intentional, unstructured play time as part of the "work" of childhood.
I'm hoping for more of this creative play on her own, if not for the fact that it frees up my hands for other tasks around the house. Plus, don't you love listening-in on their inner thoughts? It's absolutely darling. It also gives me insight into what goes on in her little toddler brain and what words and events stick out in her mind. Related to the whole argument for unstructured play and encouraging imaginative play, there were a few articles that came out recently with scientific support for this. Here are some links below:
"The Seriousness of Play"
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-serious-need-for-play
"Old-Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skills"
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514
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