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Topping the list, compiled by play experts and celebrity mothers such as TV presenter Melinda Messenger, was "rolling on your side down a grassy bank." Making mud pies, growing cress and building sandcastles were all in the top ten. Collecting frogspawn and making perfume from flower petals also featured. A survey of 1,000 adults earlier this year found that when asked for the best play experience a child could have before the age of ten, one in three people cited building a sandcastle. But asked to name another activity after that, half could not think of another thing to name. Experts are concerned that children are becoming "play malnourished" because their parents will not let them out of their sight and cannot think of cheap and easy ways to play with their own offspring. An average eight-year-old is now allowed to stray only within a 100-yard circumference of the front door, according to the National Play Council. Freedoms enjoyed by most eight-year-olds in 1971, such as going to a park on their own, are now delayed until the age of 11 — a loss of three years of independence. Must dos The top ten things to do before you are ten are: 1. Roll on your side down a grassy bank 2. Make a mud pie 3. Make your own modelling dough mixture 4. Collect frogspawn 5. Make perfume from flower petals 6. Grow cress on a windowsill 7. Make a papier-mache mask 8. Build a sandcastle 9. Climb a tree 10. Make a den in the garden. — The Independent |
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A
new list has detailed 33 things every child should have done before
they are ten. Rather than notching up overseas holidays and new
skills, a panel of experts has recommended a checklist of essential
childhood experiences that can mostly be achieved in a back garden.