10 things children should do before ten

[aloha]

Did anyone see a news report on this and can do a link? A charity drew up a list of ten things every child should do before they are ten - eg make sandcastle and I wanted to see it.

Cam, I think you're right, it is a bit Junior Magazine that list. Still, I did a lot of them as a child.

Isn't it more a light-hearted list, like those lists that they do for adults - 100 things to do before you die? They're never taken as prescriptive, and I don't think this is, either, they're more the things that children do almost instinctively when faced with a hill, a pile of sand, a pile of snow. There's nothing to feel either smug or inferior about - they're just the things that kids do when given the opportunity.

i have done 23 of the list and ds who is only 20mths has done 8 already

I must get a garden one of these days.

Well, I liked it! And I did most of these as a kid, despite growing up on a council estate - in flats while I was under ten! My grandparents had a garden at their council house and grew roses. I also pretended that their plastic kitchen mat was a magic carpet.
To me one of the pleasures of the list is that most things on it are free or very cheap.
I thought it was quite inspiring, actually.

I agree it's a nice list, aloha. But it has reminded me that I really want a garden!

my ds never goes in ours!! bu yes it is a luxury.

I agree aloho - I like it. I managed most of them - again grew up in a town, not remotely rural. Did have a garden though.

Love to move soon so DD can have a garden - have balcony, terrace and shared gardens but not same now she is older. But grandparents all have gardens for now.

When I get a garden I will force the boys to play in it night and day!

lol my ds is 20mths and is always in the garden loves it probably best thing we have in the house. or out of it as case is..lol

Thanks to marvellous wireless i can sit in garden on mn while he plays.

Oh, for a minute there I thought you meant you were getting Radio Mumsnet in the garden, nemo

It's the sort of list which exactly describes my childhood and the kind of childhoos i aspire to for DS - but that's it, isn't it/ it is an advertising promotion, designed to tap into an aspiraional sense of nostalgia. There are some things which presume a good big garden, with lashings of enid blyton, not to mention it's rather pre-global warning tone! It might not snow eniugh before DS is 10!

But on the whole i do think many kids are losing the chance to do things which enable them to make adventures in the environment - to indulge in play in which they can change their environment in accordance with theri imagination - toys are so specifically in the image of the real thing, the ELC sell tents in every genre, so a den made from the back of the sofa and a sheet, or out in the yard / on the balcony, or even in your Famous Five-esque garden just begs the q 'why bother'? Actually I made dens on the waste ground near the brook - no-one would allow a 7 year old to do that now - have fun all day between men playing with themselves in the bushes, and a fast flowing stream? (we always WERE late home because we had to let our wet clothing dry out lest it betray that we had indeed been in the forbidden brook!).

It's a Montessori sort of list, any activity that allows the child to use their imagination, relate to the natural world or explore the nature of things from scatch can be substituuted. And I agree with Rodeo - much better than 'hell maim fury'!

I also made absolutely fantastic dens on waste ground and in an abandoned house - would NEVER allow ds to do that!

One of the guys who made the list up was on the Radio, saying it's not there to make people feel guilty, just to remind parents to give their children space to play. He seemed to think that either children were all in poor families (didn't value play time) or middle-class+ families (too busy sending junior to violin lessons to let the poor boy have time to kick a ball around).

Can't be asked to count up how many we've done, but DS1 was certainly climbing trees (in the park) in full view of the park-keepers by the age of 2.5 yo...

What a bonkers idea that less well-off families don't value playtime

Quite Cam - I think the real culprits on play time are people like me - over anxious about our children's safety, living in huge detatched houses where a child can't just nip next door to the neighbours and certainly playing in the road would be totally out of the question! And throw money at the play situation to make sure that they can experience it in a safe way. Of course I don't love my children any less because of it, but neither does someone whose child can't mix rose petals in a glass jar because they don't have a garden, and doesn't have any grandparents with one either!

Most of the things on the list I did as a child, and the vast majority of them I did when out and about playing on my own. And did them just for the joy of it, not because it was on some list that someone had decreed was the must-dos for children under 10