Worldwide Day of Play

As part of our never-ending quest to find weekend activities interesting to parents and Little S., I like to troll Parent Map, Red Tricycle and the local paper for ideas.  The RT blurb on the Worldwide Day of Play caught my attention.

Day of Play?  How cool is that?  I decided to dig a little deeper.  Turns out the Worldwide Day of Play is sponsored by Nickelodeon.  The network (along with The N, Noggin and Nicktoons) goes dark for three hours and encourages kids to turn off the TV, go outside, and play.

Great idea.  The media is full of articles suggesting that kids don't have enough unstructured play time or opportunities for exercise.  And, I often feel like I'm living Recess Monkey's Busy Bees song.

But, I imagined that I would arrive at the Day of Play event and be overwhelmed by Nickelodeon advertising and product placement.  Sponge Bob square dancing?  Dora and Diego dunk tanks?  Maybe a Backyardigans bouncy house?

To my relief, the event was entirely commercial free.  I didn't see a single mention of TV stations, characters or shows.  Instead, the staff set out all sorts of play equipment (a tug-of-war rope, soccer balls, croquet, sidewalk chalk, a small bouncy house, jump ropes, even a kid-size badminton court), a big container of lemonade, and let the kids play.  

And the kids played.  Sampling all sorts of games and activities, organizing themselves into tug-of-war teams, and taking breaks to rest in the shade when needed.  

A great way to spend an unusually sunny September afternoon.

Oh, and it turns out that some researchers dispute the idea that American kids are over-scheduled.