Ever since my boys were born, we’ve encouraged unstructured play time and a whole lot of it. Over the years, they’ve picked up many hobbies that they might have never discovered without this time.
Allowing my boys an abundance of free time to play indoors and outdoors has helped them discover so many interests that they may have never found otherwise. My oldest son, Sam, has discovered a love of running, reading, and learning as much as possible through both books and experience.
Along the way, he’s taught himself to play the guitar, too, something that likely wouldn’t have happened if his music time had been overly structured.
My middle son, Ben, loves board games and is forever building things with scraps and parts he finds in the house and outdoors. He and his youngest brother are often found building their latest creations in the backyard.
He has been known to diagram his entire creation before he begins the actual building project.
Ben and his younger brother Nate are both rock collectors and they love finding cool new rocks when we travel. Nate is the lover of all things insect or creepy crawly.
He is also the builder that his brothers never were and he will spend an entire day working on a single new creation once he has the idea in mind.
Ben and Nate will happily spend an entire day exploring outdoors anytime we head out camping. There were many days this summer, during our crazy long road trip when we barely saw them.
I don’t think they’ve ever been happier.
However, with that giant assortment of random supplies, the kids have made armor, swords, staffs, and more. They’ve spent hundreds of hours on the back porch creating and playing.
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