Observations on the road

We stopped into our favorite coffee shop the other day, on the way home from talking to the people at Reclaimed Space.  The coffee shop owners are a young couple with a 2 year old boy.  We got into the conversation of unstructured time and it was apparent that she was tuned into the importance of not controlling the little kids minute by minute activity.
She relates this story:  The family does not have a television service, so the TV set is viewed only on occasions of viewing a pay for play movie.  Because they have no TV service, the little kid is often about the house amusing himself.  She said "he can play for hours with blocks and other simple forms as toys".  However, on occasions he has stayed with his grandparents for several days at a time and they do have television and,, yes, it is on all the time.  During up time, they of course have it tuned to stuff for the kid.  On returning home, the mother reports that the little kid is unable to play by himself for more than 15 minutes without getting antsy.  After several days, this wears off and he again can play for long periods of time by himself.
No wonder so many kids have ADS.

Reading an old book by Carl Sagan, titled The Gardens of Eden, p. 202, there is this small paragraph which deals with unstructured time:

Unstructured Time, the book, is available

After many months of writing, rewriting and editing, the book made it through the prnter.
We think it turned out pretty good and should provide some interesting reading and thought provoking points about unstructured time for children.

Here's the cover, you can buy it at nq99hq store on Etsy.com: