Wren,
Forget about creativity. Don't you think everybody needs and deserves downtime? You know unstructured free time when one is pleased to do whatever he wants within given constrains. Sorry, couldn't skip the constrain part
BTW I found ColinsMum's definition both quite accurate and funny.
I believe we all need time to do our own thing whatever that can be. I am a stronger believer in a free time. We homeschool and besides all the academic reasons, for us giving our children more free time is one of the top reasons to homeschool. I am trying to make sure they do have free time every day and feel quite a guilty if some of their days get way too busy. I go even so far, that if they have a busy weekend, I give them Monday off school. Yes, day without learning, so we can all (that includes me too) can relax and recharge. Sorry to say that, but 5 minutes of free time is laughable.
I don't really care what my children do with their free time. Let me see, today they had about 2 hours and they decided to spend 1 hour playing outside, 25 minutes watching TV, and the rest playing/wrestling with each other. Yeah, it was so not academical, but it was NOT waste of their time. They enjoyed their time together, they had fun. Yesterday DS6 spent his free time reading a book about pirates, dressing up like one, and designing a pirate flag. The day before he opted to play math games on the computer which led to him asking me to teach him more about decimal numbers. All of that was his/their choice.
I believe kids need to get bored here and there. Free time may lead to academic development or it may be a pure play, but honestly who cares? My children are years ahead as it is. I refuse to plan and structure every single hour of their lives. My kids need the freedom to explore and follow their interests or do the unimaginable nothing. You see, some of my older one's obsessions would have never happened, hadn't he had his free time. For example I would never make him spend hours upon hours learning about geography as he did on his own. To this day geography is one of his favorite subjects.
I don't let my children do whatever they want all the time, but I do give them what I hope is enough time to do as they please. We homeschool, so they are told what to do quite often. I ask them to practice the piano and yes, we have had our own share of fights over it.
I know this isn't really part of this thread, but I wanted to point it anyway. Interestingly enough this week the piano teacher mentioned that DS8 had overcome some of the major hurdles and can now really enjoy piano (his 3rd year). You would have to see the change in him. The kid who wanted to quit a year ago now asks to practice these days! Something I didn't expect to happen. Ever. It reminded me of the article and how mastery brings more joy. Perhaps there is some truth to it. He liked piano the first six months, then he was ok with it. The 2nd year with a new and more strict teacher was mostly no good. He was asked to work harder and his mistakes were pointed out, something he had hard time dealing with. I didn't let him quit, but I did offer to find a different teacher. He decided to stay with the same teacher and now he is enjoying playing again. Am I glad he stayed with piano? Yes. Do I believe he is happy he got this far? I believe so, at least for now.
