TOP TIPS FOR PARENTS
To support this year's Make time!
campaign, Play Wales have produced top tips for mums, dads and
carers - for Playday and all year round.
Quality time
Children’s idea of quality time is different
from ours – simply, they just want and need time to play and to
know that we are around if they need us.
Prioritise time for playing
Playing makes a very important
contribution to all children’s learning and physical and emotional
health – equally as important as lessons, homework or football
practice – and it is what they want to do.
Time out
Outside is where children want to be –
time spent in natural outdoor environments with friends costs next
to nothing. If there isn’t a good park or field nearby, it’s
time to start campaigning for one.
Switch off the screen
We need to encourage children to go out
and play – limiting screen time is a must for some children.
Go back in time
For hundreds of years children have gained
pleasure from dabbling in streams, building dens in the woods,
larking about in mud and rain, and making fairy houses from moss
and leaves. These cost-free opportunities are valuable and
timeless.
Time to chill
If there is a worry about children’s
safety, find a way to keep an eye out for them – go sit somewhere
nearby, take a newspaper and a picnic and let them make their own
adventures while you relax.
Time for cheap and
cheerful
There are low-cost or no-cost
alternatives to ‘holiday activities’ and expensive toys and games.
Find out about local play schemes, adventure playgrounds or scrap
stores.
Reproduced with kind permission of Play Wales.