Let them Be Bored Challenge with Petit Filous

If your a regular reader to my blog you may remember a couple of weeks ago I wrote about how important free play is for our children especially as screens are becoming more prevalent in daily life. If your not sure what Free Play is all about it's pretty simple, you turn off the screens and let your children enjoy some unstructured play without you being tempted to dive in to direct it (of course if it's becoming unsafe you do need to step in), allowing them to learn through play. All you need to do is simply provide them with a safe space that will allow their imaginations to run wild, whether this be inside or out.

We are pretty low screen in our household as it is with having little to none Monday to Friday and a movie or two on the weekends. Outdoor play is something I am very passionate about although lately even I have felt screens have been creeping into our lives more than usual mainly due to all the wet wintery weather. So taking on this challenge I really wanted to focus on keeping screen time to a minimum on the weekend too, no matter how cold and miserable it may be and focus on quality family time, creativity and natural learning.

So this past weekend we set ourselves the challenge and while Saturday was pretty wet and at times very temping to pop on a film instead we it was lovely to see the boys actually play with their toys, get creative, draw more and they actually got on a lot better when screens where not an option, the environment was also calmer. On the Sunday we decided despite it being bitingly cold we wrapped up and headed to Garwnant near the Brecon Beacons for a hike and to allow the kids to take control of how the outing would turn out.

My eldest had actually initially been hesitant to go out but once we were there they enjoyed it so much we struggled to get them to leave. We simply provided them with a space that was safe but inspiring and had a variety of options for play. They first spent an hour or so in the nature inspired play park and turned the rope ladder and bridge into a pirate ship climbing to the nest to see across the sea. They then wanted to head off on the animal trail through the woodlands with sticks in hand the pirate adventure continued. 

We generally find on our outdoor adventures we try to have it as unstructured as possible but even so especially when visiting somewhere new the urge to want to see and do everything can come into play and you end up rushing your kids, this time however we took it slow and at their pace and thoroughly enjoyed our walk. If you find free play a little bit too much indoors as it does mean embracing mess than heading outside is fantastic and good for the whole family. We ended the afternoon with some hot chocolates in the beautiful cafe overlooking the reservoir. 

What have I learnt

During the Free Play challenge I had the chance to speak with Anita Cleare a parenting expert and co-founder of The Positive Parenting Project, I found our discussion really useful and insightful and she gave me some really good tips on structuring screen time better on weekends by still being very clear about rules when it comes to tablet use, making it something that was positive and moderated.  

I've also found that we often as parents complain our children don't play with all the toys they have, the ones we spent a fortune on but perhaps we are not providing them with enough distraction free time to do so. I found both of my boys have been far more creative, enjoying role playing and also being better companions with each other when a screen is no longer an option. 

 The Petits Filous Play Free campaign is all about putting those screens down, getting creative, going with the flow and letting your children learn in a natural and unstructured way. We often underestimate how much children learn from doing thing themselves, from jumping in puddles we see cause and effect, from making dens they learn about spacial awareness and sometimes these vital skills are being lost when children are provided with too much screen time and now enough organic learning opportunities.

Petits Filous are also the perfect snack as they are a good source of  calcium and Vitamin D for healthy bones and teeth and also have no artificial colours, flavours or sweetness and no added preservatives. As part of a well balance diet these make for a tasty treat after a fun session of free play.

I’m working with Petits Filous and BritMums promoting the #PetitsFilousPlayFree campaign about the importance of free play.