Surprising Secrets to a Successful Summer

You are probably busy planning every detail, so your kids can have an unforgettable summer filled with vacations, summer camps, sports activities and much more. As you finish your planning, remember to allow time for three surprising activities that are research proven to help your child's emotional, neurological and physical wellbeing.

Secret # 1: Allow time each day for unstructured, child directed play (or leisure for young people).

Research is new to the hectic lifestyle that many parents chose for their children, may be harmful to child development.

Remember when you grew up, and you just went outside to play? It turns out that it's fun, you'd use your imagination, playing tag and hang out with other kids was actually generate nerve growth in the frontal cortex of the brain, which controls the executive control, along with many other positive neurological development.

There are other benefits to play: it requires attention and sharpen the senses, and it requires mental dexterity and flexibility, and it thrives on the opportunity, it expands human variability, it expands our nervous systems, allows us to take risks and try new roles, the children learn how to get along with others and control themselves, it encourages creative problem solving, and it promotes decision making, memory, thinking and mental processing speed and reduces aggression, it develops the brain cells to exercise control over attention , regulate emotions and control behavior. (1)

Indeed, American Academy of Pediatrics called unstructured play and recreation "crucial for development, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has recognized the player as a right for every child. (2)

Many children have limited access to play, however. With the increased marketing machine that encourages parents to buy gadgets that will give children an "edge" that the increased academic pressures from No Child Left Behind-the professionalism of their children's sports and the top college admissions pressure, parents have succumb to the notion that their child should be involved in more structured activities and have to excel at them all.

Play and recreation has declined rapidly. The amount of free time in unstructured play and outdoor activities decreased from 40% of children's time in 1981 to only 25% of a child's day in 1997 (1) and in 2009, that number will be even smaller. When kids have free time, their favorite activities, TV, computers and video games, all sedentary work, which limits creativity.

So what's a parent to do? Cutting down the number of organized activities your child is in and just let him / her get down time. Give toys that are conducive to imaginative play. Limit the time your child is on electronic gadgets. Send them outside. Teach them old-fashioned games and let them hang out with the neighbor kids.

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