{"id":1277,"date":"2010-04-07T03:14:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-07T03:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-ninety-seven-benefits-of-playpen-timeroom-time-for-preschoolers\/"},"modified":"2015-06-05T15:14:23","modified_gmt":"2015-06-05T19:14:23","slug":"day-ninety-seven-benefits-of-playpen-timeroom-time-for-preschoolers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/characterinkblog.com\/day-ninety-seven-benefits-of-playpen-timeroom-time-for-preschoolers\/","title":{"rendered":"day ninety-seven: benefits of playpen time\/room time for preschoolers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSoon it was time for Jakie to play in his play pen, so Josiah and I got to play together. Next thing I knew, we were in trouble! Mommy came into the room and said that it looked like a tornado went through. We did it again! We got too many things out at one time. We had stuff all over the living room: Legos, cars and trucks, Duplo people, books, and stuffed animals. It took us FOREVER to clean it up—even with Kara\u2019s help. Josiah and I had to each do an extra fifteen minute chore with Mommy because we forgot the rule about getting out too many things at one time. \u201c<\/span><\/strong><\/span>

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Jakie went to his playpen, and the two preschoolers went to their room to play. Recipe for disaster or thirty minutes for Mom to get something done\u2014and thirty minutes of focused activity time for the littles? Well, you can see that Jonathan and Josiah had a little trouble with getting too many things out at one time, so I won\u2019t act as though room time and\/or play pen time is always a breeze, but I will share what I think are the benefits of such times in a toddler\u2019s\/preschooler\u2019s day\u2014and tomorrow I will share a few how-to\u2019s for those who desire to learn how to implement these times in your littles\u2019 schedule.<\/span>

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First, the benefits of having a daily (as much as possible) room time or play pen time:<\/span>

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1. Increase in focusing skills\u2014Preschoolers are busy people! Add to their \u201cbusy-ness\u201d all of the technological distractions, and it becomes obvious why attention spans of children seem to be getting shorter and shorter. According to Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children\u2019s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle who studied 1,300 toddlers and preschoolers using a television survey and comparing that to a behavior checklist, frequent TV viewers in early childhood were most likely to score in the highest ten percent for concentration problems, impulsiveness, and restlessness. His survey went on to show that every added hour of watching TV increased a child\u2019s odds of having attention problems by about ten percent. Kids watching about three hours a day were thirty percent more likely to have attention\/focusing trouble than those who did not watch television. (This survey also accounted for many other factors besides television that could be linked to problems concentrating; however, the television connection continued.)<\/span>

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We tried to build extensive attention spans in our children at young ages (as much as it was in their control!). We did this through many means discussed on this blog\u2014limiting electronic stimuli, reading aloud to them, providing daily audio listening time, maintaining a schedule that is conducive to learning and healthy intellectual development, exposing them to a variety of activities\u2014AND instituting room time\/play pen time for them. When children are given one activity (or a few choices) to do in a small space (without distractions and other choices), they can actually do the hard work of concentrating. (See future posts for the link between this and natural readers from a graduate school study I did many years ago!)<\/span>

<\/span>
2. Builds many preschool skills naturally\u2014we had a loose family policy that, even though we homeschool, we would not teach anything formally to our young children that could be taught informally. This meant that we would not use workbooks day in and day out to teach letter recognition; we would just use signs along the road and on stores. This meant that we would not have our littles complete worksheets matching the letter to the picture of the beginning sound\u2014but we would instead point out letters and sounds everywhere\u2014as we read aloud to them, as we drove\u2026as we \u201cwere in the way with them\u201d! If we offer educational activities for our littles during room time\/play pen time, we give them opportunities to learn naturally and at their speed. This can be done through puzzles, blocks, book and tape sets, matching activities, beads, etc. etc. (I will provide links for some suggested activities tomorrow.)<\/span>

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3. Provide a small amount of time for Mom to get something else done\u2014room time, when carried out consistently and followed through on as needed, can give Mom thirty to sixty minutes to get other things done, knowing that her littles are safe, learning, and contained! I always used room time for the second-most Mom-intensive thing on my agenda that day. (The most Mom-intensive things were reserved for nap times.) <\/span><\/p>\n

Now that you know a couple of the benefits that we found to room time\/play pen time, stay with us tomorrow as I share tips on implementing this beneficial time in the life of your little ones. <\/span>

<\/span><\/p>\n

*For the complete story of \u201cJonathan\u2019s Journal, follow this link: https:\/\/positiveparenting3-6-5.blogspot.com\/2010\/03\/day-seventy-eight-introducing-jonathans.html<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSoon it was time for Jakie to play in his play pen, so Josiah and I got to play together. Next thing I knew, we were in trouble! Mommy came into the room and said that it looked like a tornado went through. We did it again! 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