The Simple Pleasures

Here are just a few of the sensations and experiences that come alive through unplugged play.  When you read this list, the essential question to ask yourself is this:  Can a screen or machine bring the same joyful experience into my child's life?

Play for Joy

• Feel the sunshine on your face as you kick a ball.
• Run after a friend and catch her!
• Put on a costume and pretend to be a grown-up.
• Squish your toes and fingers in mud.
• Jump, skip, and roll down the hill.
• Pick up a caterpillar and look at its fur.
• Pour sand into containers; make a castle.
• Make yourself go higher on the swing and feel the thrill in your stomach.
• Catch a frog and feel his slimy skin.
• Pedal a bike without falling off.
• Learn how to turn a cartwheel.
• Pull a wagon full of dolls as fast as you can.
• Run through the sprinkler in the backyard.
• Dig up worms in the dirt with a stick.
• Throw a water balloon and watch it splash.
• Learn to dribble a ball.
• Make a paper-plate hat, put it on your head, look in the mirror, and have a laugh.
• Jump rope with two friends.

Play for Intelligence

• Line up wooden blocks on the floor and count them for the first time.
• Watch how your older sister builds a tower and make one just like hers.
• Learn to add and subtract by counting buttons from the button box.
• Use cups to scoop water out of a bucket to determine how many cups are in a gallon.
• Build a fort and add heavy books to keep the sheets from slipping off the table.
• Turn over cards on the table that have matching pictures underneath.
• Learn which pans make the loudest noises when you hit them with a spoon.
• Invent a story from your own imagination and tell it to a friend.
• Experiment at a sink full of water to see which things sink and which ones float.
• Find the treasure box in the backyard by guessing the correct answers to all the clues.
• Learn to write your name in cursive.

Play for Connection

• Listen to a story and know when it's time to turn the page.
• See that a friend is sad and offer her a teddy bear.
• Say "I'm sorry" after grabbing a shovel from your friend.
• Learn to take turns on the slide.
• Do the Hokey-Pokey with four other friends.
• Learn not to tell the answer to the riddle until everyone has had a chance to guess.
• Make a big playhouse out of a box and let your friend color the door red when you wanted to paint it blue.
• Imitate exactly what your friend does and take your own turn being the leader.
• Make a giant get-well card for Grandma and take it to the hospital.
• Give a puppet show where all the bunnies act happy, then sad.
• Play house with your friends, and you get to be the dad.