Let the children play : for the learning, well-being, and life success of every child

When you were a child, how much time did you spend playing outdoors? By playing, I mean making up games on your own or with friends, running around and falling over, all for the sheer fun of it. I expect it was many hours every week. I'm a baby boomer and when I was growing up in inner city Liverpool, my siblings and I took every opportunity to get out of the house and play. Like cats, we only went home for the food. We played in the streets, in the back alleyways and in the local park, with each other and with other kids from the neighborhood.We played running and chasing games, hiding games, ball games; and improvised adventure games, often based on stories we'd read in comics or seen at the Saturday cinema matin©Øees. Our parents did much the same when they were children and so did their parents. From time immemorial, children have spent countless hours outdoors immersed in physical, imaginative, social play. Not any more. Children now spend much less time playing like this than ever before, and the consequences are incalculable.