The power of play: A once-upon-a-time opportunity – By Laura James

Parents everywhere have superpowers! Unfortunately, this power is often dormant because most parents don’t even know they have it. No, it’s not flying or shooting spider webs from wrists, but it does involve spiders of another sort: “Itsy Bitsy Spiders.” As handy as flying and web spinning would be for wrangling little ones, parental superpowers are far better and have a greater impact on the world.

The Power of Play

The super power that all parents have is play; it is something that we all share, but like Peter Pan, parents often forget how to play. If only there were an app for that. Well, now there is: Together Time with Song and Rhyme is a new app that helps parents bond with their preschoolers through fun, tickles, songs and rhymes that support early childhood development.

Together Time makes parents more fun for kids! Childhood is a once-upon-a-time opportunity; it only lasts a few short years. It’s easy for parents to spend too many of those years focused on trying to get kids to behave in our adult world, when we could be using our super power to make us child-like again. Parents are better served when they practice living in their children’s world and play. It’s more of a Jane Goodall approach, where you observe and behave like the little creatures, to try and understand kids and their world, instead of trying to make the little creatures fit into your world. This immersive approach helps parents gain trust and paves the way for a more fun and seamless childhood.

Play not only helps kids acquire critical early development skills, it makes everyone’s life more fun. Play has been proven to strengthen the parent-child connection, which inevitably, helps reduce the natural friction that can often occur with new experiences and patterns of behavior.

Play: Helping Kids Prepare For Future Activities

Creative play, or even a playful attitude, can help break the cycle of noncompliance that many children develop toward seemingly mundane activities, and encourage children to think about these activities from another, more engaging perspective.

Does your child refuse to get in the car? Start singing “Windshield Wiper” before you even get out the door. This helps set expectations for where you are going, rather than the seat they have to be strapped into, while giving your child a sense of fun. Trouble getting the kids to go to bed? Help settle little creative minds for dreamland with this 5-second tickle before reading their bedtime stories: “The moon is round, as round as can be. Two eyes, a nose, a mouth, like me!”

“These types of parent/child bonding activities give children the ability to experience their world with more of their senses; sight, sound and touch. The sing-songy, repetition helps them expand on their learning, intuitively and exponentially, with some sense of understanding and even control. It also encourages positive behavior and supports early literacy in language, math and science, which in turn helps them become active learners and lead more engaged lives. Put simply: play encourages possibility in the world.

Play is the work of children; it supports their ongoing development physically, cognitively and emotionally. When parents decide to take a little time to find their inner child, play can have the power to transform their lives, giggle-by-giggle, into a magical wonderland. One of the best parts of having kids is that it gives you an excuse to relive childhood. It goes by fast so have fun, play often and connect! If fun is the focus, learning will be the outcome, every time. To download Together Time, visit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/together-time-song-rhyme-for/id500577597?mt=8

Laura James is the former children’s TV producer and creator of Together Time, an app for parents and educators equipped with activities to promote learning. James is also the CEO and founder of 7 Potato, the new online activity library for kids, parents and educators.