text:
Parental Influence on Play and Creativity Levels of Preschool Children in India
Mahnaz Heidari Nia 1
N.N Prahallada 2
1 PhD in Educational Management , Nasibeh Campus, Farhangian University, Tehran ,Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Education, Regional Institute of Education (NCERT), Karnataka, Mysore, India
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of parent-related variables including age, education, income, job, and time spent with children, and different components of PAAT including creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning on play and creativity levels of preschool children. This research was a survey-correlational study and participants were 180 preschool children and their parents selected from different schools in Mysore city, South of India. Parents filled in the Parents as a Teacher Inventory (PAAT) and children took part in Movement Monitoring Tests (MMT). The results of regression analysis showed that only the income of parents had a significant influence on preschool children with a high level of play and creativity. Other finding indicated that the influence of the mother's age, education, income, occupation, and time spent with the child is found to exist only in the group of children with a high level of play and creativity. The findings also revealed that the influence of mothers' attitudes toward parenting connected with creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning is found to exist in the group of children with low and high levels of play and creativity.
Article Title [Persian]
تأثیر والدین بر سطح بازی و خلاقیت کودکان پیش دبستانی در هند
Authors [Persian]
مهناز حیدری نیا 1
ان. ان پاراهلدا 2
1 دکترا مدیریت آموزشی، پردیس نسیبه، دانشگاه فرهنگیان، تهران، ایران
2 دانشیار، گروه علوم تربیتی ، موسسه منطقه ای آموزش و پرورش،ایالت کارناتاکا، میسور، هند
Abstract [Persian]
هدف این مطالعه بررسی تأثیر متغیرهای مرتبط با والدین همچون سن، تحصیلات، درآمد، شغل و زمان صرف شده بازی با کودکان و مؤلفه‌های مختلف پرسش نامه " والدین به منزله معلم " شامل خلاقیت، بازی، ناامیدی، کنترل و یاددهی/یادگیری و سطوح خلاقیت کودکان پیش دبستانی بود. روش پژوهش از نوع پیمایشی- همبستگی - و شرکت کنندگان از مدارس مختلف شهر میسور در جنوب هند انتخاب شدند ( 180 کودک پیش دبستانی و والدین آنها) . والدین به سوالات پرسشنامه "والدین به عنوان معلم " پاسخ داده و فرزندان آنها در آزمون " سنجش حرکت" شرکت کردند. نتایج حاصله از تحلیل رگرسیون نشان داد که فقط درآمد والدین بر سطح بازی و خلاقیت بالا در کودکان تأثیر معنی داری دارد. سایر یافته ها آشکار ساختند که تأثیر سن، تحصیلات، درآمد، شغل و زمان صرف شده با کودک مادر فقط در گروه کودکان دارای سطح بازی و خلاقیت بالا مشهود است. یافته‌ها همچنین نشان داد که تأثیر نگرش مادران نسبت به فرزندپروری مرتبط با متغیرهای خلاقیت، بازی، ناامیدی، کنترل، و یاددهی/یادگیری در هر دو گروه کودکان با سطوح پایین و بالا بازی و خلاقیت موجود است.
Keywords [Persian]
Early childhood is a crucial stage of life in terms of a child's physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development. Growth of mental and physical abilities of children progress at an astounding rate and a very high proportion of learning takes place from birth to age six. It is a time when children particularly need high-quality personal care and learning experiences. Education begins from the moment the child is brought home from the hospital and continues when the child starts to attend playgroups and kindergartens. The learning capabilities of humans continue for the rest of their lives but not at the intensity that is demonstrated in the preschool years.
Nowadays, preschool education has become a hot topic for parents and early childhood educators. Preschool education is the foundation for children's education and by actively promoting and encouraging their preschool learning; the self-esteem of children is promoted as well. According to Zimiles (1986), preschool programs are designed to provide an environment for creative play, social play interactions, and intellectual stimulation while paving the way for a smooth transition into kindergarten. Children need strong gross motor skills so they can engage in age-appropriate physical activities such as running, climbing, and throwing) and participate in classroom activities that require body control. During the preschool years, they improve balance, strength, agility, and flexibility support refinements in running, jumping, hopping, and ball skills. Gross-motor achievements in early and middle childhood result in the advancement of movement abilities (Haywood & Getchell, 2005).
A crucial component of preschool education is play. Play is a term employed in psychology to describe a range of voluntary, intrinsically motivated activities normally associated with recreational pleasure and enjoyment that is most commonly associated with children and their juvenile-level activities (Garvey, 1990).Play enables children to make sense of their world, as children possess a natural curiosity to explore, and play acts as a medium to do so (Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2003). According to Erikson (1983), play provides opportunities for exploration, experimentation, and manipulation that are essential for constructing knowledge and contributing to the development of representational thought. During play, children examine and refine their learning in light of the feedback they receive from the environment and other people. It is through play that children develop their imaginations and creativity. During the primary grades, children's play becomes more rule-oriented and promotes the development of autonomy and cooperation which contributes to social, emotional, and intellectual development imposed by someone other than the kids themselves.
From an individual child's viewpoint, play is an important phenomenon that finds expression in different ways, depending on each person's own experience (Tekin & Tekin, 2007). Different researchers have reported a number of positive effects of children's play on early childhood development such as, motivating and orientating children, as well as giving them opportunities to exercise free choice. Play has been considered the characteristic mode of behavior of the young child, an expression of the natural spirit of childhood, and thus a key defining feature of childhood (Fromberg & Bergen, 2006; Kleine, 1993; Mayall, 2002). Hayes (1991, p.143) sees play as "an absorbing activity in which healthy young children participate with enthusiasm". Csikszentmihalyi (1981, p.42) describes playing as "an arrangement in which one can practice behavior without dreading its consequences". According to Almon (2010), creative play is a central activity in the lives of healthy children. Singer (1973) describes the imaginativeness of play as an aspect of creativity. Play is an important factor in the development of children's creativity, and by providing an opportunity for play, a foundation for creativity is constructed (Dansky & Silverman, 1975). Ginsburg (2007) states that play is essential for development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. On the other hand, creativity is the capacity to create and produce new things. It is the capacity of the human brain to reach new conclusions and ideas and to solve problems in an original fashion. It can manifest in artistic, literary, and scientific forms, and it can also unfold the area of daily life, improving its quality. The latter aspect will probably not leave its mark on the history of humanity, but it is basically what makes life worth living (Csikszentmihaldy, 1996).
Creativity is a key process for personal development and social progress, and it is therefore included in positive psychology. Creativity is a cognitive style; it frames how children approach learning and how they interpret and process information. It is defined as a totality of processes and a way of attitude and behavior which exists in every child to a different extent. Every child is creative owing to their nature and their perspective on life. Creativity, which has an important role in the development of societies and humanity and expresses an important ability of the individual, can be defined as an inherent latent power. It is a process that involves certain characteristics such as flexibility, multidimensional thinking, sensitivity, alertness and interest in people and the environment, fluency, being able to think and act comfortably, quickly and independently, originality, and being able to arrive at different and diverse conclusions (Chamberlin, 2005).
Children of pre-primary school come under the age group 3years to 6 years. These children are generally in the foundation stage of motor skill development and hence their movements are involved in the play. The abilities involved in the performance of motor acts in children's play and creative movements are identified by experts in three categories including exteroceptive ability, proprioceptive ability, and motor memory ability. These three abilities together constitute the motor monitoring ability of children which can be considered a measure of the play and creativity of preschool children.
Creative movement activities can be used to enhance all areas of learning and growth. Creative movement play is a dynamic support to babies, children, young people, and parents in their efforts to grow naturally, healthily, and with as much pleasure as possible. Hence, the play and creativity of children are a matter of movement monitoring in children. A creative movement is an art form whose medium is the body used for natural movement (Kaufmann & Ellis, 2007) and creative expression (Bannon, 1994; Cheung, 2010; Dow, 2010; Oshuns, 1977). Thus, creative movement can both increase children's verbal skills and provide an alternate means of expression. The creative movement offers children the opportunity to gain self-creative play which is very important for preschool children's development. Preschool children typically enjoy creative activities that allow them to express ideas and feelings. These activities also help them develop fine and gross motor skills. The preschool years can be one of the most creative times in a child's life (Gottlob & Oka, 2007; Lorenzo & Ideishi; 2018). During these ages, locomotors (creeping, walking, jumping, leaping, etc.), non-locomotors (stretching, bending, twisting, shaking, etc.), and stability and balance skills flourish when children are provided with practice opportunities.
In addition to play and creativity, parental influence on preschool children is considerable. Many people believe that the success of society depends on how well parents perform their role (Hsu & Hsu, 1999). Parents have an enormous influence on their children for several reasons, most importantly because they are their children's first teachers. Children's brains are like sponges in the first couple of years of their lives that absorb everything surrounding them. Therefore, what they learn from their parents in the first couple of years of their lives will make a lot of impact on children for the rest of their lives. It is important that children learn how to be excited about learning from an early age. Parents are the ones who need to instill this excitement in their children. The family seems to be the most effective and economical system for fostering and sustaining the child's development. Without family involvement, intervention is likely to be unsuccessful, and a few effects that are achieved are likely to disappear once the intervention is discontinued (Bronfenbrenner, 2005).
Parents have a role in their children's creative plays. Children tend to be more creative when their parents are involved in their play. The best play occurs when the parent plays alongside the child, rather than just providing the toys or supervising. Parents are the first and best playmates for their children (Jude, 2006). Parents are role models for children, and therefore, they have the power to influence values, attitudes, and behavior. Singer and Singer (1990) believed that children can develop their skills most efficiently with the initial help of adults, who then let the child go on his or her own. Encouragement is greatly needed from adults, but this should not be confused with intervention. This does not mean that children cannot play with adults; however, it is important for the parents to remember that they are there to go along with the child's ideas. Playing with children should not be thought of as a "chore" but an opportunity to experience the emotional rewards for fostering creativity in a child.
Studies have been done on play and creativity in preschool children. Garaigordobil (2011) evaluated the effects of a play program on the creative thinking of preschool children. She indicated that the play program significantly increased verbal creativity (fluency, flexibility, originality), graphic creativity (elaboration, fluency, originality), and behaviors and traits of the creative personality. Oncu & Unluer (2010) investigated preschool children's use of play materials creatively. The findings suggested that young children have the potential of thinking and play creatively because the results outlined that they actually had very little or no opportunity to use unstructured and real objects as play materials. The researchers concluded that children need to be given plenty of time and varieties of different unstructured materials to play with freely. Preschool teachers have to encourage their students to play freely with different unstructured materials and tools and play in different areas and situations. Also, children should be encouraged to express their creative views and thoughts by educators and families.
Parental influence on play and creativity of preschool children has also been investigated. Tandon and Dimitri (2012) investigated the frequency of parent-supervised play of U.S. preschool children analyzing the behaviors of 8,950 children and their parents. The results showed that physical activity through play is essential for preschool children and also beneficial for motor development, vision, and cognition; mothers were more likely to take children outside to play than fathers; children in a low socioeconomic status may have fewer opportunities to be active and play, and play time was not influenced by household income and mothers' marital status. Lushizhen (2011) indicated that one of the strongest motivations for parents was their high expectations for their children. Jensen (2010) conducted a study on parental perspectives on preschool children and found significant positive relationships between opinions of play and other subscales of "Parent As A Teacher" including creativity, teaching/learning, control, and frustration. Findings suggested that children obtain higher levels of play when parents have an understanding of play and its benefits to learning.
Other studies have investigated play and creativity in preschool children with reference to the parental background. Brockman (2009) used strategies employed by parents to encourage children to participate in creative play based on different socio-economic statuses. Children from middle/high socio-economic schools were more likely to report that they were encouraged by their families to take part in play activities through non-verbal methods; whereas those from low socio-economic schools were more likely to receive verbal encouragement and prompts. Overall, children from more affluent schools were more likely than those from lower socio-economic schools to report participating in family-based activity. Yvonne (2009) studied the description of low-income African American mothers on young children's native play and showed the value of play for young children's development in social interactions, creativity, and problem-solving areas that contribute to kindergarten readiness. Some parents embraced play as essential although others were less impressed by the fact that play could be a contributing factor in childhood development (Roopnarine, Shin, Jung, & Hossain, 2003). Kimmel and Connelly (2007) found that high socioeconomic-status mothers spend two to three times as much time in preschool childcare as low socio-economic status mothers. Topuz (2017) stated that the development of creative performance in children is a continuing issue within certain processes, and the phenomenon of playing that arises spontaneously in children is effective to ensure and develop the continuity of creativity.
Not much research has been conducted concerning the influence that parents have on children's play and creativity levels. Clay (1996) examined the parental influence on the creativity of preschool children and was unable to report any significant findings concerning parental influence. No study seems to have been done considering play and creativity as one composite factor based on the movement abilities of children. Furthermore, very few studies are reported on the influence of factors like age, socioeconomic status, parents' perception, and attitudes on the play, drawing ability, mathematical ability, language ability, and creativity in preschool children. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of parent-related variables including age, education, income, occupation, and time spent with children, and different components of PAAT including creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning on play and creativity levels of preschool children. This study answers the following research questions:
What is the play and creativity level of preschool children as measured using Movement Monitoring Tests (MMT)?
Do parents' age, education, income, occupation, and time spent with children have any significant effect on preschool children's play and creativity levels?
Can different components of PAAT including creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning significantly predict play and creativity levels in preschool children?
Research Method
This research was a survey-correlational study. In order to collect data through "Movement Monitoring Tests (MMT)" and "Parents As A Teacher Inventory (PAAT)", 180 preschool children and their parents were selected from different schools in Mysore city, India. Most of the preschools in India are run by private and service organizations. Pre-primary schools are called by different names such as kindergarten schools, childcare centers, Montessori schools, and Anganawadis. Kindergarten schools are the most popular and Anganawadis are managed by the Department of Women & Child Welfare Department in Karnataka State. These schools are located in localities with different socio-economic backgrounds. To have a representative sample for the study, the socio-economic background of the locality was categorized as high, medium, and low. Table 1 reflects the distribution of the preschool children and their parents in this study.
Table 1. Details of children, parents, and Schools selected for the study
Name of the Selected schools
No. of Children
No. of parents
Low Socio-Economic region
S.K.K.B Preschool
St. Rita's Preschool
Akkanabalaga Preschool
Medium Socio-Economic region
St. Mary's Preschool
St. Thomas Preschool
Sharadvilas Preschool
High Socio-Economic region
Maharshi Preschool
J.S.S Preschool
VijayaVittala Preschool
In this study, "Parent As A Teacher Inventory" (Strom, 1995) was used to measure parental perspective and expectations. The purpose of the PAAT inventory is to identify favourable qualities of parents with 3 to 9-year-old children and detect behaviours for which further education appears warranted (Strom, 1995, p.29). The PAAT identifies how parents interact with their children, what they desire or expect of their children, what actions are taken in response to children's behaviours, and their understanding of how to facilitate children's development. The inventory includes 50 Likert-type items that constitute five subscales that contain 10 items each. The subscales represent key child development and parenting concepts including creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning. PAAT instructions inform respondents to read statements on feelings about their children. For each statement, they have to circle only one answer. Each item includes four possible answers: (1) strong yes, (2) yes, (3) no, and (4) strong no. If parents have no doubt about a statement, they are directed to circle strong yes or strong no. Otherwise, yes or no should be circled, indicating the direction of their feelings concerning each of the 50 statements. There is no time limit. The Parent As A Teacher (PAAT) in English was translated by five experts knowing Kannada and English languages into the Kannada language. The content validity of the questionnaire was also established with the help of five experts knowing both English and Kannada languages involved in the field of education and psychology. The subject experts did not suggest any changes or modifications. A pilot study was conducted on a sample of 30 parent's preschool children in Mysore city. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for Indian (PAAT) inventory was found to be 0.81. Hence the reliability of the Kannada version of PAAT is confirmed.
The standard Movement Monitoring Test (MMT, Sudarshan, 2001) was used to measure the play and creativity levels of upper kindergarten children. The purpose of MMT is to measure the play and creativity levels of preschool children. Three variables are quantified using this test battery including exteroceptive ability, proprioceptive ability, and motor memory ability. Average scores of these three abilities are added to represent a score of movement monitoring ability. This score was justified as a score of play and creativity of preschool children in the present study. The construct validity of MMT was established by the correlation coefficient of the score of each of the abilities, 0.8, 0.7, and 0.07 for exteroceptive ability, proprioceptive ability, and motor memory ability respectively, with the composite score.
In addition, a short demographic survey was developed to obtain information on the personal and professional characteristics of the parents. The items on this survey used either fill-in-blank or forced-choice responses. The use of these types of response formats helps provide consistency across the parents by limiting their responses to those that are relevant.
A request letter for data collection was addressed to the head of the selected schools by enclosing a permission letter from Block Educational Officer, Mysore city. The research scholar fixed a date and time for two days with the head of the institution for data collection. From each school, class teachers of UKG were requested to select 20 children by random selection from the attendance register based on the roll number.
To collect PAAT data, the parents of twenty children from each school were requested one day in advance to cooperate in providing the data on PAAT inventory. On the stipulated day, parents were assembled in a room and the researcher explained to them the objective of the study and gave a copy of the questionnaire to all 20 parents (mothers). They were given sufficient time to mark suitably in the given questionnaire. In the end, data sheets were collected, and the data of180 mothers were collected. The author of the MMT test was available at Mysore and he was requested to orient 4 nursery teachers for conducting 8 tests of MMT and collecting the data. Along with the researcher, the 4 selected nursery teachers were given orientation on the 8 tests of MMT. The trained testers were taken to school by the researcher as per the schedule and the test was conducted. Test scores of 180 UKG – Preschool children were computed. The scores represented the play and creativity levels of children. These scores were arranged in ascending order and classified into three groups with low, medium, and high levels of play and creativity. After gathering the data, SPSS software 16 was used to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics including frequency, mean, and standard deviation were used to measure the play and creativity levels of preschool children. Regression analysis was used to assess the effects of parents' demographic factors and the components of PAAT on the play and creativity levels of preschool children.
The first research question investigated the play and creativity levels of preschool children. Table 2 reflects the descriptive statistics of low, medium, and high Play and creativity levels in the sample of preschool children. As shown, 48 children were categorized under low play and creativity level, 93 children under medium play and creativity level, and the remaining 39 children under high play and creativity level. The range of mean scores between the low, medium, and high levels of play and creativity was 40, with the mean scores being 368, 402, and 441 respectively.
Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the low, medium, and high play and creativity levels in the sample of preschool children
The second research question investigated any significant effect of parents' demographic variables including age, education, income, occupation, and the time spent with children on children's play and creativity levels.
Table 3. Regression analysis for levels of play and creativity and demographic factors
Levels of play and creativity
Predictor variables
Beta coefficient
t-value
R2 value
Low level
of play and creativity
0 .521
Time spent
With the child
Medium level of play and creativity
High level of play and creativity
2.495*
*Significant at .05 level.
As exhibited in Table 3, beta-coefficients for various demographic factors-ages, education, income, occupation, and time spent with the child with respect to low level of play and creativity are found to be 12.023, 2.722, 3.943, 6.185, and 1.928 respectively and all these values are non-significant, which is confirmed by a non-significant F value 0.521. Also, as exhibited in the table, beta-coefficients for demographic factors of age, education, income, occupation, and time spent with the child with respect to medium level of play and creativity are found to be 2.368, 0.957, 0.964, .040, and .823, respectively and all these values are non-significant, which is further confirmed by a non-significant F value 0.764. Finally, beta-coefficients for various demographic factors of age, education, occupation, and time spent with the child with respect to the high level of play and creativity are found to be 5.768, 6.410, 2.537, and1.609 respectively, and all these values are non-significant, except for income where the beta coefficient is found to be 10.521. However, the obtained F value of 0.056 failed to reach the significance level criterion. It can be concluded that only the income of parents with the high level of play and creativity had a significant influence.
The third research question investigated any significant if different components of PAAT including creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning can predict play and creativity levels in preschool children. To determine the predictive power of parents' perspectives and expectations on the play and creativity level of the children, a regression analysis of creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning was done with regard to the three levels of play and creativity in preschool children. Table 4 exhibits beta coefficients, t-value, and, F values with the level of significance.
Table 4. Regression analysis for levels of play and creativity and PAAT variables
Levels of creativity
Level of
Teaching/ Learning
As shown in the table, beta-coefficients for various influencing variables- play, frustration, control, with respect to low level of play and creativity are found to be 14.13, 06.49, and 05.85 respectively, and all these values are non-significant. However, for teaching/learning and creativity the beta values of 21.33 and 25.56 which are significant at 0.04 and .01 levels have the F value of 0.05 which is significant. Furthermore, the table beta-coefficients for various influencing variables- creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning with respect to medium level of play and creativity are found to be 02.41, 0.221, 4.54, 2.229, and 5.476 respectively, and all these values are non-significant with the non-significant F value (F=0.16). Finally, beta-coefficients for various influencing variables- play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning, with respect to the high level of play and creativity are found to be 04.633, 05.584, 15.477, and 10.556, respectively and all these values are non-significant. Only for creativity, the beta coefficient of 15.14 is significant at 0.04 level. The F value is 0.05 and significant. It can be concluded that teaching/learning and creativity significantly predicted low levels of play and creativity, and only creativity predicted high levels of play and creativity, but no predictions were found for medium levels of play and creativity in preschool children.
The results of the study showed that the influence of the mother's age, education, income, occupation, and time spent with the child is found to exist only in the group of children with a high level of play and creativity, and in particular with the income of parents. The income of the parents is found to influence the play and creativity level of children. The study by Clay (1996) is in agreement with the findings of the present study. Clay examined the parental influence on the creativity level of preschool children and was unable to report any significant findings concerning parental influence. She analyzed the parental scores of PAAT sub-scales, with the additional variables of gender, educational level of parents, and occupation of the parents using multiple regressions. None of these variables were significant in predicting the child's creativity score. Runco (2007) has reported that culture, family background, and school environment are implicated in creativity development in children. Miller (1979) noted that the creativity level of children can be linked to the family background and parent-child relations through numerous factors such as gender, birth order, socioeconomic status and parental relationships tend to contribute to a child's creativity level. Kimberly (1999) also found that socioeconomic status had significant effects on the PAAT overall, creativity, and control subscales. These findings are in agreement with the present study. It is clear from the findings of various studies that numerous factors assessed on the PAAT scale have influenced the process of the development of play and creativity in preschool children. The findings also showed that the influence of mothers' attitudes toward parenting connected with creativity, play, frustration, control, and teaching/learning is found to exist in the group of children with low and high levels of play and creativity. Level of play and creativity, are significantly influenced by variables of creativity and teaching/learning. Studies by Clay (1996) and Kimberly (1999) contradicted the findings of the present study with no relationship between the PAAT and the creativity level of preschool children. However, studies by Jensen (2010) and Slaughter (1981) support this study with significant positive relationships between the level of play and other areas of parenting including creativity and teaching/learning. It is clear from these studies that play activities and their promotion in preschool are crucial factors in the overall development of creativity in children.
The present study clearly brought out the fact that creative play is very important for preschoolers' development. Creative play and artistic activity are important to children's overall development. Preschoolers typically enjoy creative activities that allow them to express their ideas and feelings. These activities also help them develop fine and gross motor skills. Play is a psychomotor activity; it involves not only the movement of bodily organs but also cognition. Intelligence and higher-order problem-solving abilities are acquired gradually through various modes of play. The creative expression and the preschool stage should be viewed from the capacity for various forms of motor activities and the basic form of problem-solving ability in children. Creative play is very important for development because it stimulates curiosity, flexibility, and improvisation, and promotes problem-solving behavior that leads to learning, imitation, and adaptation to change. The play has been referred to as children's work and its importance in cognitive development has been acknowledged by many researchers in the field of child and school psychology. Children's tendency to play has been specifically linked to creative thinking skills; however, this is not always recognized by parents. Play is valued differently among different cultures. Sometimes the parent's attitude towards playing children can be one of indifference; in fact, play is a natural activity for children and provides an important window for us to understand the development, views, and necessities of children, which has been clearly documented in the present study.
Nowadays, we have the task of convincing parents to see themselves in a new context, as their children's first teachers who should arrange preschool learning at home to prepare children for the classroom. Some related tasks for educators include determining the level of parental knowledge about early development, finding out what they expect of young children, and learning how their influence is affected by demographic factors. If educators are made aware of the normative attitudes of parents, they will be better able to establish partnerships with them. The present study has opened our eyes to these possibilities. The level of children's play will be optimum when parents are involved and actively play with them. The variety of play in which children engage will help parents to join them. Based on the findings of the present study, the researchers suggest four key roles of parents to promote children's play:
Parents can be a role-model to develop positive attitudes in children towards play. They can encourage play and provide a balance of indoor and outdoor play throughout the year. Indoor games consist of more cognitive abilities and outdoor play involves more physical abilities. When parents join the play, it is important that they are guiding, shaping, engaging in, and extending help not dictating or dominating.
Parents can prepare appropriate stimulating environments. It is important to offer a variety of materials and experiences at varying levels of difficulty. The choice of materials is critical because it provides the motivation for children's exploration and discovery. Both indoor and outdoor experiences should provide exploratory centers and spaces. The play environment should allow children to make choices and explore the play possibilities. The play environment should be reflective of the child's day-to-day living experiences.
Parents can observe children in their play. Observation is an ongoing process that provides information about the child's interests, abilities, strengths, and opportunities for further learning and development. Observation helps identify the ways parents can build on and guide learning.
Parents can also enhance or facilitate play by encouraging children to bring their interests and experiences into the play, and ask questions to expand and enhance activities related to play. The more stimulation given by the parents to their children, the early foundation as formative years for the child will be strengthened for healthy future development.
Furthermore, young children's play is important for the development of skills, concepts, and approaches. It is essential that public policy promote and support early education methods that make full use of play and child-initiated activities. State and local policymakers should:
Adopt preschool learning standards/foundations that identify play as the primary method for early learning
Require the adoption of preschool curricula that emphasize play and child-initiated activities
Establish parent education programs that explain the importance of play for cognitive development
Require assessment based on teacher-documented observations of children during play. Rule out high-stakes testing of preschool children.
Developing tools to measure creativity in preschool children in the context of multicultural background
Consider the impact of family life environment on play and creativity in preschool children
Evolve strategies to nurture play and creativity in intellectually exceptional children
Consider the impact of training teachers in cognitive problem-solving on problem-solving abilities in children
Consider the effect of some psychological and social adjustment variables on creativity levels in children.
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Clay, C. (1996). An examination of parental influence on the creativity of preschoolers, M.A Thesis, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.
Csikszentmihaldy, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper Collins.
Dansky, J.L., & Silverman, I. (1975). Effects of play on associative fluency in preschool-aged children. Developmental Psychology, 9, 38-43.
Dow, C. B. (2010). Developmentally appropriate programs in early childhood education, New York, Macmillan Publishing Company
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Fromberg, D.P. & Bergen, D. (2006). Play from birth to twelve: contexts, perspectives and meanings. New York: Routledge.
Garvey, C. (1990). The Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Garaigordobil, M. (2011). Effects of a Play Program on Creative Thinking of Preschool Children. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 14(2), 608-618, Retrieved 20 May 2021 from http://dx.doi.org/10.5209/rev_SJOP.
Ginsburg, K. R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds, Pediatrics, 119(1), 182-191.
Gottlob, S., &Oka, Y. (2007). Movement Curriculum for Pre-School Children with Emotional Disturbances: A Three-Stage Developmental Approach. Journal of Dance Education, 7(1), 14-24.
Hayes, N. (2007). Perspectives on the relationship between education and care in early childhood, The Framework for Early Learning, Research paper, Dublin: NCCA, available at: https://www.curriculumonline.ie/getmedia/f9fda0a5-bf83-4e76-9588-44ef32b6015e/ECSEC05_Exec1_Eng.pdf
Haywood, K. M., & Getchell, N. (2005). Theoretical Perspectives in Motor Development, Life Span Motor Development, Champaign, Human Kinetics, (4), 15-23.
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Hirsh-Pasek, K., &Golinkoff, R. M. (2003). Einstein never used flash cards: How our children really learn- and why they need to play more and memorize less. Emmaus, Pennsylvania: Rodale Inc.
Hsu, F., & Hsu, L. K. (1999). My life as a marginal man, Taipei, Taiwan: SMC Publishing.
Jensen, D. M. (2010). Parental Perspectives of Play with Preschool Children, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 10(2), 223-247.
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Accept Date: 02 January 2023
First Publish Date: 02 January 2023
Heidari Nia, M., & Prahallada, N. (2022). Parental Influence on Play and Creativity Levels of Preschool Children in India. Iranian Journal of Comparative Education, 5(4), 2210-2227. doi: 10.22034/ijce.2023.376188.1456
Mahnaz Heidari Nia; N.N Prahallada. "Parental Influence on Play and Creativity Levels of Preschool Children in India". Iranian Journal of Comparative Education, 5, 4, 2022, 2210-2227. doi: 10.22034/ijce.2023.376188.1456
Heidari Nia, M., Prahallada, N. (2022). 'Parental Influence on Play and Creativity Levels of Preschool Children in India', Iranian Journal of Comparative Education, 5(4), pp. 2210-2227. doi: 10.22034/ijce.2023.376188.1456
Heidari Nia, M., Prahallada, N. Parental Influence on Play and Creativity Levels of Preschool Children in India. Iranian Journal of Comparative Education, 2022; 5(4): 2210-2227. doi: 10.22034/ijce.2023.376188.1456


The Deal-Thomas Endowed Fund at the Peabody Institute will be in Honor of Carol Jean Thomas, Teacher. This fund will be held in perpetuity for the Historical Performance Department of the Peabody Conservatory. Only the spendable income earned by this fund shall be used to support the students, faculty, and performances of the Historical Performance Department at the Peabody Conservatory. All distributions from this fund shall be appropriately recognized.
George Peabody was born in Massachusetts, in 1795 in a town now named after him into a family of limited means. He received a minimal formal education and began his career as an apprentice in a grocery store. He briefly worked with his brother in a draper's shop in Newburyport, He later moved on to the south to join his merchant uncle in Georg etown, D.C.
Peabody enlisted in the army during the War of 1812, and met Baltimore merchant Elisha Riggs. After the war, Riggs and Peabody moved to Baltimore and started a dry goods wholesale business in 1815 under the firm name of Riggs, Peabody and Company. The company flourished, in large part because of Peabody's energy and fine business sense, and opened branch offices in Philadelphia and New York. In 1829, the firm name changed to Peabody, Riggs and Co., and in 1830s, when Riggs retired and Peabody became senior partner, the firm was one of the largest and most prosperous mercantile firms in the country.
Peabody built the base of his fortune in Baltimore. By the late 1830s, however, he had moved beyond mercantile interests to become a financier, and in 1836 he decided to move to London, then the center of the financial world. Later, when he began to dispense his great wealth worldwide in numerous philanthropic gifts during the 1850s, he remembered with fondness his 20 years in Baltimore and the many lasting friendships he had made in the city.
...I have determined, without further delay, to establish and endow an Institute in this city, which I hope, may become useful towards the improvement of the moral and intellectual culture of the inhabitants of Baltimore, and collaterally to those of the State; and also, towards the enlargement and diffusion of a taste for the Fine Arts.
In his letter, Peabody outlined the elements of the institute he proposed--a library, a scholarly lecture series, an academy of music and an art gallery--and eventually gave $1.4 million to endow it. The Baltimore of 1857 was a thriving commercial center but at the same time culturally bereft, and Peabody sought to remedy this sad situation with one stroke.
The institute opened its doors in 1866, and the new library was dedicated in 1878. The lecture series was initially well received, but ceased when Johns Hopkins University became well established; the art gallery was eventually superseded by the magnificent Walters collection. The conserva tory of music, however, became one of the leading conservatories in the country, and the library, although surpassed in size by the libraries of Johns Hopkins and Enoch Pratt, remained a scholar's treasure. It was also, undoubtedly, Peabody's tremendous gift that inspired those who came after him--notably, Enoch Pratt, Johns Hopkins and Henry Walters--to give generously to the city and people of Baltimore.
Today the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Library are departments of the Johns Hopkins University. Conservatory graduates hold positions of prominence throughout this country and the world as teachers, vocalists and instrumentalists with the foremost institutions and professional musical organizations. Faculty and graduates perform regularly with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Opera Company, as well as many other musical organizations in the area.
Welcome to Peabody, one of America's first and most prestigious conservatories of music. Peabody aims to educate the finest musicians from around the world. Our faculty are among the most distinguished, our curriculum is among the most rigorous and our environment is among the most supportive of any music conservatory.
Peabody has had tremendous success training leading performers, composers and teachers throughout its 150 years. We work constantly to update our curriculum to ensure today's graduates have the skills they need to achieve success in the music profession.
Peabody's Preparatory Division is its anchor in the Baltimore community, offering the finest curriculum in music and dance. Countless students, children and adults, have had their lives enriched through their studies at Peabody.
However you have come upon us, as a potential student in the Conservatory or Preparatory, as a participant in our Elderhostel program, as an audience member or as a visitor to Baltimore, we hope you will find all you need to know about us from this website. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.


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How tall is the Arsenal Clock Tower? | River Action, Inc.
Across the street from the Mississippi River Visitor Center is the large limestone Clock Tower Building, which was constructed in 1863 as the first building of the Rock Island Arsenal. Near the top of its 117 foot tower are four twelve-foot diameter clocks that are visible for miles in all directions. Originally, the building was used for storage of arms and supplies. Shortly after World War I it was ordered to be torn down. However, because of local interest in the building, it was not demolished, although it stood unused for several years.
Then in the early 1930's, the Clock Tower found new life when the US Army Corps of Engineers began the construction of Lock and Dam 15 at this location. The Corps began using the first floor of the building as offices, and by the mid 1930's all three floors were filled. Since that time the Clock Tower as been the headquarters for the Rock Island District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Rock Island District is one of six districts that comprise the Mississippi Valley Division of the Corps. It covers more than 78,000 square miles and includes 314 miles of the Mississippi River from Guttenberg, Iowa, to Saverton, Missouri; and also 268 miles of the Illinois Waterway from Lake Street in downtown Chicago to the LaGrange Lock and Dam, southwest of Beardstown, Illinois.
Northeast of the Clock Tower and east of the Visitors Center is an environmentally-friendly parking lot, constructed in 2003. The Corps of Engineers partnered with River Action to build this permeable parking lot. Its porous surface absorbs the water that would normally runoff into the river. Native prairie plantings surrounding the lot help to clean and filter the water before it reaches the Mississippi. This project is part of "Retain the Rain" which is a project that encourages businesses and individuals to do what they can to reduce stormwater runoff which hurts our waterways. Learn more about what you can do to Retain the Rain at our website at www.riveraction.org.
To learn more about the Clock Tower building, Lock and Dam 15, and the Corps of Engineers, we invite you to stop in at the Mississippi River Visitor Center. Park Rangers are on site to answer questions and explain the locking process as the boats pass by. Also available are interactive displays and short films that allow you to explore the river and its uses! Inside you'll find great views of boats and barges locking through.


text:
Q: Display permanently current time in Tcl I have three questions, all of them closely related to each other. The most important one is the first one.
First: I am trying to display the current time in the format hours:minutes:seconds, so
set systemTime [clock seconds]

puts "The time is: [clock format $systemTime -format %H:%M:%S]"

But the above clock should be permanently updated, that is, the seconds-part of the clock should be running all the time.
Second: In the next step I would like to display milliseconds and they should be updated as well.
Third: I would like to execute a procedure at a certain point of time. More precisely: At a certain time, say 16:20 (the format here is hours:minutes), tcl musst execute a procedure, say proc SumUpInt, which I defined. It may be possible that I want to consider seconds and milliseconds as well when executing the proc.
I do not know how to do this. I have found many similar questions on some web sites, also on stack overflow, but I was not able to adapt some of these solutions to my problem.
Any help is welcome!
Thank you in advance.

A: There doesn't seem to be an output directive in clock format for milliseconds, so perhaps:
proc timestamp {} {
    set t [clock milliseconds]
    set systemTime [expr {int($t / 1000)}]
    set milliSeconds [expr {$t % 1000}]
    return [format "%s.%03d" [clock format $systemTime -format %T] $milliSeconds]
}

timestamp      ;# => 14:41:13.032

You can turn this "realtime" with
proc run_timestamp {} {
    puts -nonewline "\r[timestamp] "
    flush stdout
    after 100 run_timestamp
}
run_timestamp
vwait forever

But the vwait means this will block the Tcl interpreter. I don't have any thoughts right now about how to integrate this into your terminal.

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text:
I'm supposed to be doing readings right now, but I've been so distracted by my emotions and my thoughts (on topics I won't discuss here) and have started writing to distract myself, hopefully with the intention of clearing my mind. Since I was a kid, I've wanted to keep a diary, but was never able to write in one consistently. At the same time, being a 10 year old, I didn't have much to say, since my day consisted mostly of going to school, seeing my friends, learning things, seeing my parents, etc, all of which were so quotidian they didn't, in my mind, warrant being written down. They were as monotonous as breathing, or waking up, or blinking; activities which provided the background for my everyday life, the details which were often omitted from the manuscript because they added nothing of substance, because human beings themselves have come to take them for granted. When I got to college, I started journaling as a way of addressing a mounting issue in my life; my anxiety disorder. Unable to speak to anyone, feeling stupid for feeling so uncomfortable in public space, I turned inward, went inside, through writing in order to get to the central question: "Why are you anxious?"
"Why?" A question which has no true answer, which proves the existence of the small, interior realities in which we all live, isolated, distanced yet nevertheless influenced by the world around us. The "rooms" of headspace, unpopulated countries comprised of regions and provinces which are often frequented and avoided. Perhaps not unpopulated; peopled with memories, shades of loved and hated ones, shadows of ourselves. "Why?" A verbal question whose answer is never satisfactory, for we can never adequately fit ourselves into another person's headspace and therefore understand the context or lack thereof which feeds its dissatisfying response. A question which when spoken aloud only furthers the rift between interlocutors in its affirmation of the notion that one's thoughts are distinct, are unintelligible, are irrational, that one's mind operates differently, that one's reality functions differently than another's. "Why?" A command of a question; it demands an answer, is imperative in its unanswered disbelief and distrust. A question which forces the mind to translate rabid thoughts, mental gibberish into language which cannot and never has been able to support it. Meaning is lost, details fall by the wayside, for language is not enough. A question whose answer is never enough.
Why do I write? What is the purpose of writing, and who am I writing for? I have three journals, I suppose. This blog, which is the main journal, comprised of content which I think is universally applicable enough to be shared with others, despite it nevertheless reflected the utmost interiority of my dimly-lit mind. Another notebook I keep in my backpack in which I scribble down thoughts in a language I fashioned to secure that interiority. A gift from Michelle which I haven't used until recently for a reason I still don't know, a reason I've never interrogated, and likely never will. A Word document I started writing when things were not going well with someone I cared about quite fondly. Comprised of letters to myself and to others, the document looks inward at my lie, undoing the facades of confidence and centeredness I build in order to function, not yet destabilizing my inner self, but trying to better understand why I continue to put myself in uncomfortable situations, why I continue to pursue people who don't want me, why I continue to read friendliness and pity as "yet a chance." The Word document, titled à détruire (to be destroyed), does not rip open scabs in order to force wounds to heal, an act which only prolong recovery, which feels cathartic in the moment of the snatching back of the keloid, only to leave in its wake a scar which will never fade, but acknowledges the presences of a wound the mind would much rather ignore, leave untreated despite the beginning tenderness and redness of serious infection. It is perhaps the most inward I can go without doing serious damage to myself, and I am grateful for the space it provides me, although I rarely use it for this very purpose.
But why write? I used to think that writing provided me some form of catharsis or absolution. "Speaking into existence" the turbulent thoughts of my inner mind so that I acknowledge them and are freed from them. Yet, in the past, writing has done the exact opposite. The writing venture would begin at the first sight of anxiety as a gathering of clouds on the horizon, and I would continue to tease out my thoughts until I was unaware that the storm had crested and was no upon me. Writing did not will the clouds apart, rend the storm, but caused it to draw closer, to gather new dimensions. My writings would cause the anxiety to thicken, and therefore it did not bring my catharsis, but forced me to deal with anxiety as text and not as critique. With time, as I learned new techniques for managing my anxiety, and as my writing has changed in both its substance and its purpose, this is no longer the case, but I still don't often feel catharsis as much as I feel centered in my awareness of the issue at stack. This is likely due to getting better at self-interrogation and asking the right questions, a development my writing has only reflected and not necessarily influenced. Writing has never untied the knot growing in my chest, the fluid sloshing about in my lungs; it has only forced me to acknowledge that such a knot, that the pneumonic pus, is there and that it afflicts me.
I also write to better understand the craft and expanse of human language. The voice is perhaps the most versatile form of expression, yet its masterful deployment requires a deftness I do not possess. People who can speak eloquently about their feelings will always garner my admiration, for while I can feign eloquence by dissecting an argument in an academic treatise, I struggle to read the urtext of my own emotions, let alone the subtexts which liaise emotion to lived experience, which ground sturm und drang in their environment. I cannot answer the question of "where is this coming from?" if I cannot even know the answer to the question "what does this mean?" Writing in a way forces me to use language to better approximate the root of my anxieties, even if human language has its limitations, its fickleness. It was not made to carry the weight of our minds as emotional landscapes, as three-dimensions worlds in and of themselves. Language serves only the purpose of communicating the two-dimensional simulacra of lived experiences, of transforming sound, touch, emotion, taste, feeling, time, anxiety, suspicion, faith, superstition into signs and symbols of these things. Language cannot deconstruct the symbol, nor can it create the essential bridge through which symbolized idea is transmitted. In the translation process, something essential is lost and cannot be redeemed. Language is but the mean by which we are relativized to another, but it cannot fully surmount the rifts which our individual experiences (and through them, our identities) build between us. It very well cannot even cross the rifts we struggle to address in ourselves.
Sometimes I get afraid that I am being too abstract in my writing, or that I am not being as accessible I should be, but then I begin to question the means by which I establish what accessibility looks like, or the ways that that notion could be loaded with classist ideas of what people are and are not capable of understanding. This week's reading was Adorno and Horkheimer's "The Concept of Enlightenment," a text I found difficult to understand and whose prose seemed to represent a specific period in time (the post-war era, roughly from 1945 – 1990) when it seemed that academics prided themselves on the density and unintelligibility of their work. Adorno & Horkheimer, Deleuze & Guattari, Lefebvre, de Certeau, Glissant, Bhabha, Spivak; all writers who engaged with ideas and concepts which language could not seem to adequately contain, whose texts don't seem to ooze information, but ambiguity. As someone who wishes to engage with their work, to advance or qualify or reject their claims, am I bound to their language of obscurity, of liminality? Is writing without ambiguity worth reading, worth considering?
Is writing a form of expression worth saving? The history of the written tongue, of its literary formulation and its critical analysis, of the artificial fission between "literature" and "orature" as two seemingly distinct, differently weighted categories of storytelling and expression; the written, the yin, always lauded in the West over the darker twin of the oral, the banal, the quotidian, the unreflective, the irreflexive. Does writing truly crystallize language in ways which memory and its physical artificers cannot? Is the written truly richer than the oral? Beyond this, is communication sufficient? Have we evolved as a civilization or a species beyond the limitations of the language which has brought us to this point, to the mountaintop of evolutionary ambition, still wondering "what more is there to overcome?" Are we lost to the symbols and signs of human language, an Narcissean pool in which we see not an image of the truth, but a reflection of what we want to see in the world, of what we see in ourselves? Is all writing just a chalkboard onto which we project our emotions and our feelings and our fears and our fetishes, and if it is, does writing even matter? If we cannot communicate adequately, if something still is lost and never to be regained, if we still putz around in the dark in spite of ourselves and one another, is it worth it to write at all? Is it worth it to speak at all?
The reason I enjoy having a journal is because it is a form of writing that exists only within the narrow dimension of my own interiority, bound to my psyche in a way which is inseparable from its physical and psychological context. My journals don't exist for anyone else, are purposefully opaque (because of the language I use to write my entries), and offer me a space in which the question of writing becomes something unrelated to the writerly act itself. I used to believe in "writing the self into existence" (writing seems always to deal in some form with the existential question of being in our literarily-inundated and death-fearing civilization) as a form of resistance to imperialist ideas of personhood and subjectivity, but beyond the world of perpetual protest and existential skepticism which academics love to augur as "the way things are," the writerly act – or to be more specific, the act of journaling, of diarying, of finstaing, of confessional blogging – nevertheless speaks less to a perpetual desire to proclaim one's existence (an idea of an anterior era from which I believe it is now necessary to retreat) as much as it does to a desire to acknowledge the means by which existence is troubling and troubled by the world, that it seems the world is too fragile to contain us and society to austere to understand us. Writing as an act may not necessarily defy a politics of being, but nevertheless understands that being is in its very nature political. To write is to live beyond the world of flesh and bone, a world whose ephemerality seems horrifying albeit necessary, yet to nevertheless surrender to the reality of one's evanescence as the structure which both chokes us to death and influences us to act.
Author xavierCategories ruminationsTags diary, interiority, relationships, self, writing
One thought on "why write?"
Y. Chireau says:
In these journals you sow the seeds of your own enlightenment. I recall those early aspiring days as a novice initiate in the academic guild. Keep writing, strive for clarity, rather than ambiguity, and some of us will continue to read. Best wishes
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In keeping with our mission, Community Harvest Project's 5K Dash is a great opportunity to build an engaged and healthier community by participating in a fun and physical activity with family and friends. The 5k course will be along the scenic trails of the Grafton Land Trust, right off of Community Harvest Project's Main location, ending near our Harvest Home- Family Farm Festival event. There will also be a 3K walk option that will begin shortly after the 5k, for those who want to participate by slowing things down a bit and enjoying the trails. The 5K dash that will allows community members to take an active and healthy approach to hunger relief in our community.
There will be a 5K run and a 3K walk through the Grafton Land Trust trails, ending at our Fall Family Festival.
Check-in will be from 9:00-10:15am on the day of the race.
Following the race will be our Fall Family Festival, an annual community fundraiser filled with activities that are fun for all ages, ranging from hay rides to an interactive display of our farm equipment to our extraordinary apple cannon and pumpkin catapults, and are all nicely complemented by our delicious homemade soups and baked goods made in CHP's own kitchen. This event is intended to bring the community together to the farm, celebrate the harvest, raise awareness of Community Harvest Project's work, and raise funds to support our operations, enabling us to bring thousands of volunteers together each year to grow hundreds of thousands of pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for hunger relief in Worcester County.


With so much to see and do, it's no surprise that many people visiting Europe want to try and fit as much as possible into their trip. Exhilarating as it might be to see the Eiffel Tower one day and Big Ben the next, or to travel between 2 or 3 countries in the space of a week, the costs of this high-intensity travel do add up.
But don't worry, the costs of visiting Europe don't have to stop you from seeing all you want. We've reached out to Stephanie Parker, creator of the travel budget blog Big World Small Pockets to share with us her top money saving tips which will help you see as much of Europe as you want to, without spending an amount you don't!
City Passes are cards issued in many European capitals and large towns that provide great potential discounts to visitors. By paying a set fee to join the scheme, tourists then receive a card pass which enables them to make large savings on entrances to attractions, public transports fares and even shops and restaurants. Be sure to research the benefits of each City Pass you're considering before you buy it, as each has its own rules and benefits. However, if one you're interested in includes museums, galleries or events you were already planning on seeing, then a City Pass can be a great way to save money when travelling Europe. Particularly recommended are the Zagreb City Card and the Berlin Welcome Pass, which offer holders a huge range of savings across their respective cities.
Talking of passes, if you're less interested in attractions, but still want to get around a city, perhaps to explore its more unusual sides, then I highly recommend you consider a transport pass. Again these vary from city to city within Europe, but most of the major tourist destinations have some form of discounted transit card that allows visitors a share of the action too. Depending on how long you may be staying in a city, consider the length of card you purchase – normally the longer the ticket the bigger the savings – or opt for a locals' card like the Oyster Card in London, which you simply top up at a machine and swipe each time you ride. Simples!
One of my favourite ways to save money when travelling in expensive locations like Paris or Rome is AirBnb. This new arm of the share economy is taking the accommodation market by storm and you'd be silly not to get in on the action. When travelling Europe, staying in an AirBnb property can be a great way to save money – usually you can find some wonderful places in prime areas of the city that would cost a fortune were they a hotel. AirBnb is easy to sign up to, simple to use and gives you a great choice from simple rooms to whole apartments. Payment is secure and there is a great peer-review system which helps provide a good level of certainty for the visitor. For bigger groups or families especially, AirBnb is a real winner.
If you prefer to book your accommodation in more conventional ways, then a key money saving tip when travelling Europe is to select the location of your hotel or guesthouse carefully. Many people think that booking accommodation right in the centre of a city is a definite no-no given the inflated rates. On one level they are right, but also consider all the additional transports costs you'll incur if you choose to stay somewhere far out just because it's cheaper. Normally the best bet is to opt for somewhere in between. Don't look for a place in the Old Town Square of Prague, for example, but considering rooms a few blocks away is probably a good idea. If you can walk to the locations you want to visit from your hotel, without being slap bang in the central plaza, you will certainly keep your costs down.
On the theme of transport, walking is a great way to keep budget low if you're travelling Europe and is definitely one of my top money saving tips. If you're looking for something a bit different and exciting however, why not consider bike-sharing instead. These great new schemes are popping up right across Europe and providing locals and tourists alike with a super new way to get around cheaply and efficiently. Bike-sharing usually involves bicycles being made available to people for short periods of time and often offers 30–45 minutes of free or very cheap initial use. A real winner when it comes to saving money when travelling Europe, check out the relevant schemes wherever you plan on visiting.
Hard to fathom sometimes I know, but money doesn't disappear by itself, so keeping track of your spendings is crucial if you want to stick to a budget. Despite the Euro, many European countries you might look to visit still use their own unique currency and trying to remember the conversion rates between them all and your home currency can be a nightmare. To save you the effort and misfortune of any incorrect calculations, I highly recommend you download and use a currency converter app during your European travels. Making sure you know the amounts you are spending, in terms of your home currency equivalent, is a great way to make sure you don't go to wild with those purse strings!
Another a key part of not going wild when it comes to your travel budget is hunting out some bargains. Local markets are a great place to source food when you're travelling as they usually provide regional produce that hasn't incurred any of the transport costs that can sky-rocket prices. Buying food that is in season in also a great money-saving tip when travelling in Europe, as a glut, of say strawberries in June, will keep their price low. Instead of going out to dinner therefore, why not hit up the local market and stock up on some delicious picnic treats instead. Find a park and enjoy a great meal for far less than you'd pay to eat out.
After your cheap meal, why not consider a cheap bed for the night too?! One of my top money saving tips when travelling is to try and combine your transport and accommodation costs so that you're effectively getting 2 things for the price of 1. A great way to do this in Europe is take overnight trains between cities. There a heap of different routes available and if you book about 90 days in advance you can score some incredible bargains in sleeper seats (essentially beds that fold down from the wall). So why not enjoy a night's sleep for free as the beautiful landscape of Europe whizzes past your window. Then wake up in the morning refreshed and ready to explore your new destination.
When it comes to travelling Europe without breaking the budget, probably the best advice I can give you is to make sure you time your trip right. Avoid European capitals at weekends - when many people from the continent enjoy city breaks. Visiting them mid-week instead will keep prices low. You should also high seasons such as Christmas and summer bank holidays if you want to score the cheapest accommodation and flights. Probably the best time of year to visit Europe, but still to get a bit of sunshine, is during the shoulder months of May/June and September/October. At this time the summer rush is either just about to start or just finished and you're more likely to grab yourself a bargain. So those are my top 9 money saving tips for travelling Europe that should allow you to spend less yet travel more. I hope they help!
Stephanie Parker is a travel addict and creator of the budget travel blog Big World Small Pockets. Never one for staying at home and working for too long, she's always had to make sure she can travel cheap to fund her nomadic lifestyle. Originally from Jersey, Channel Islands, but currently based in Australia, she backpacks the world on a shoestring collecting tips, advice and stories, to share with a smile.


At 11.50am Friday afternoon, I made a mad dash from work, to the bus stop and waited for Kyle, Kim and Danielle. We all headed to Subway (not the healthiest, but definitely the quickest) and grabbed a quick lunch. Kim was hanging around the free WiFi until 1.11pm for the massive Taobao (Chinese version of eBay on steroids) "single-day" sales. Single day is on the 11th of October (the 11th month) of each year, and it's basically like the western black-Friday times 1000… I left her and Kyle there, munching on their free cookies and hopped on the bus heading back to Dong Yuan (East Garden). It was so cold for a couple of days last week, Friday it was down to about 14`C, bearing in mind less than 2 weeks ago it was 34`C… So back to my little apartment I went, and had probably the most productive lunch break of my life. I did all the dishes left over from cooking the night before, I did a load of laundry and hung it up to dry in my drying-tent, cleaned/tidied the apartment, packed my trusty yellow weekend bag and even had chance to finish reading Frankenstein and rest my eyes for a few minutes! To say I was impressed with myself is an understatement… Back to school on the bus I went (the bus with the little box character somewhere in the name) and caught up on some paper work and marking and prepped for my Monday lessons.
On Friday the kids get to leave early with their parents dropping in to collect them from class. I managed to make my getaway at about 4.55pm, and went out to wait for the bus. The bus is supposed to be every 10 minutes, but, on Friday home-time time… no chance. I waited there in the cold until 5.25pm and had to rush home to change and make sure I had everything together. Thank god for my productive lunch break.
Because of where I live here, kind of in the middle of nowhere and in its own little bubble, we have to use private taxi drivers, our usual is a guy called Sam. So, Sam sent his other driver friend to pick me up at 6pm and he took me to Guangzhou South Railway Station where I was supposed to be meeting Cassie, a Newcastle girl also working for Worlda who I went out with last weekend too. Cassie is not the best at arriving on time, so I was hanging around for a good while until she arrived from the metro exit D and into the station. We took out tickets and headed up to the gate. The train station was huge. More like an airport. Onto the train we went and only 35 minutes later we were arriving into Shenzhen Bei (North). It's about an 80 mile journey, but thanks to the China speed trains, nice and quick and only about £7 each way.
We had to go from the station to the metro and a couple of changes later, and an infuriating ticket machine or two, we'd met up with Carol and were in a taxi on the way to our hostel. This hostel, I don't even think we can call it that, but, let's call it a "hostel" to save arguments… It was called L&B Hostel and, honestly, I think it was just someone's [very large] apartment that they had converted a few rooms into dorms. It was dodgy as hell but we really didn't have much choice in the matter as it was pushing 10pm by the time we made it there. As there ware only 3 of us, not the original 6 after the others bailed, we were in a 4 bed dorm room with a very moody Chinese girl. We crashed pretty hard that night and set an alarm for 6.30am.
I had an awful night's sleep worrying we'd missed the alarm and were too late to make it to the Colour Run that morning. We grabbed a taxi at just gone 7am, a proper meter one now we were in the city, and headed to Shenzhen University Park on the outskirts of the city. We were all pretty damn tired but excited none the less. We seemed to be some of the first to arrive and we picked up our "event bags" which consisted of: a sports drawstring bag, a t-shirt, a sports-head-band, flower lei, a sachet of colour powder, an event number, some temporary tattoos, and probably something else I'm forgetting! We waited patiently (in McDonald's) for the event start time, and joined the crowds of Chinese, and few westerners under the big inflatable START arch. There were photographers, press and even drones everywhere ready to capture all the moments of this annual event. We snapped plenty of pictures and selfies along the way while we walked the 5k and chatted the whole time. At each 1k (I think) point there was a big "colour station" where volunteers would sprinkle, throw, douse, and bombard all the participants in flurries of a certain coloured powder. Each station was a different colour and there was music blasting to add to the party atmosphere. Half way there was even a foam station which I'm not sure was a great idea with powder paint! It was fun anyways so that's all that matters I guess! As we reached the finish line we were given a medal and another packet of colour powder. This was when everyone celebrated and threw their paint about and at each other. It was amazing. Colour and powder everywhere! Random people throwing a fist full of coloured powder at people they don't know, releasing some pent up anger!
My new tattoo (temparary thank god) for the weekend!
Carol and Cassie at one of the stations!
We did it! Us, our medals, and a hell of a lot of powdered paint.
The after event wasn't the best, it was, unsurprisingly, all in Chinese and was a lot of crowd rallying with very little response from the crowds. We stayed for a good while though, threw some more paint powder, and got some more photos. We then walked a good 20 minutes to the nearest metro station, stopping in on a mall called Coco's, which supposedly had a bar strip somewhere, but we couldn't find it! We headed back to the hostel, a 50 minute metro ride with a change or two, and well and truly flopped. We intended to do a quick turnaround: shower, change, food and back out… but this obviously didn't happen. The paint was much harder to get off than expected and there was only one shower for the 3 dorms on our side of the "hostel"… Me and Carol tried our best to do some research to find out where we should go for a drink or two that evening, and most importantly, the location of the Shenzhen Beer Festival.
Much later than expected we made our way to Fumin Metro station and started our journey out into the night, unsure of what lay ahead. We ended up in a pretty cool end of town with more BBQ stalls than we could ever count. The streets were literally lined with them, the alleys were overflowing and the roads were at gridlock. We walked a little further until we came to a white tiled pedestrian street and turned in, hoping to find the beer festival. Obviously, because this is China, and that would have been way too easy, we did not find the beer festival, just a bar for one of the breweries that was attending the festival; "Bionic Brew". It seemed we weren't the first to make this mistake but we were already so hungry we decided to stop for a drink and some grub before correcting our mistake and hopping in a taxi.
In the taxi we were a bit wary because our "hostel" wasn't exactly central and we didn't want to end up stranded in the middle of Shenzhen while taxi's refuse to drive us so far home probably at about 2am later that night. The taxi driver stopped, seemingly in the middle of nowhere outside an abandoned building site, and motioned for us to get out. A little uneasy we stumbled out of the car and thankfully caught sight of a big banner: "THE 2ND ANNUAL SHENZHEN BEER FESTIVAL" Getting pretty excited now we made our way through the first deserted warehouse, and we bumped into some rather drunk westerners holding each other up as they wobbled back towards the main road. Finally, we knew we were heading the right way!
Through another building site or two, down a path lined with storage contains, and around the corner, we could hear the music pumping from speakers and hurried our pace. My eyes lit up as we eventually got to the entrance gates. A long avenue of trees, fairy lights, beer stalls, and at the very end, a live band… we'd made it! The event had started at 1pm; it was now closer to 9pm, so they knocked off 20rmb for us. We paid 80rmb for our entrance and in return we were given a proper festival style fabric band, and a token for one free beer of our choice, from any of the stalls. Completely overwhelmed by the number of foreigners in attendance, and the crazy amount of choice of breweries to choose from, we wandered down to the band in silence, eyes flitting left and right, taking it all in. We swiftly moved on to finding which beer we would like to spend our free token on, and tried a few testers before handing over the small black disk. I'd spotted a brew about halfway down that had an option of the ever elusive and hard to come by, cider. I made my way through the crowd, listening to all the English conversations around me, and asked for a glass of Demon Cider, unfortunately, due to my excitement, I forgot to take down the name of the brewery at which it was made! I did chat to the owner on my 2nd trip to the stall though, and he said that he had been brewing since the 70's but only brought his craft to Shenzhen in the mid 2000's. The cider went flat pretty damn quick, but my god was it good to taste that golden liquor!
We stayed there until it was all over, chatting to some others, mingling a little, and strangely enough, Cassie bumped into a friend she'd made while visiting Japan who just so happened to now be working in the city and at the beer festival too! Crazy how small the international circuit really is. We were a little worried about what to do next; when the event closed we'd be ushered out into the streets, a long way from home, or even another bar. Thankfully, we managed to grab a few seats on the free bus they're organised to ferry those of us not ready to end the night, to a bar of one of the local breweries, and yep, you guessed it, we wound up back where we had started the night; Bionic Brew! This time however, it wasn't just the 3 of us with a few other randomers, there was roughly about 50 people hanging around and drinking on the pedestrian street.
The beers in the Bionic Brew; yes they were craft beers in fancy glasses and probably tasted amazing to a connoisseur of the fine liquid, but… I am neither rich nor picky when it comes to my beer. So, myself and a few others, shamefully, grabbed a few £1 beers from the next door BBQ place and joined the crowd. We stayed for a good hour or two and around 1.15am, me and Carol shared a similar look, a look of; I'm tired, nothing interesting is going to happen, lets head home… Cassie, the 3rd member to our trio, was having too much fun catching up with her friend and was way on the way to being very drunk, while me and Carol… not so much! Cassie stayed out with her friends and partied the night away while me and Carol hailed a cab and made our way back to the "hostel". I forgot to mention, we also had a curfew… The guy at the hostel, the one who spoke the most English had asked us what time we would be back… We looked at him a bit clueless and said, we're not sure, depends what happens! This answer was not sufficient, it turns out we didn't get a key or entrance pass of any sort, so basically, this poor lad had to stay up in the communal area until all guests were back safely tucked up in their (rather quite lovely and large) beds… poor guy! So when we got back to the "hostel" at 1.45am (15 minutes before we told him we would arrive home), he was fast asleep on the sofa. We gently woke him and sent him off to bed while we relaxed and munched some crisps while chatting about the evening we'd just had.
The next day was a total write off. Me and Carol were fine and headed to Starbucks for breakfast, while poor Cassie buried her head in her pillow and was dead to the world, only awaking to finish another can of Fanta. Carol's bus was leaving at about 4pm, so she headed off pretty soon to make sure she was there on time. Me and Cassie on the other hand, our train wasn't leaving until 7.03pm (annoyingly I thought it was 7.30pm, which almost caused an issue… keep reading…). While Cassie slept the day away, I caught up on a little bit of reading, and, yes, also kind of slept the day away. She finally arose from her slumber, got herself sorted and packed and we headed out of the "hostel", leaving about 3 or 4 hours after the very generous 2pm check out time. And so began the hectic and stressful journey home on Sunday night.
I looked at Cassie (who was still looking a tad worse for wear) and said "Oh well, at least we've still got an hour!"… she looked back at me, worry spread across her face: "Charlie, the trains at 7.03, not 7.30… we're going to miss it." Well, sh*t son! With nothing we could do to make him drive quicker, we sat back and watched both the clock and the blue blinking dot on my map, making its way slowly towards the station. Unbelievably we made it into the huge station with 15 minutes to spare. Cassie did a mad McDonald's dash while I waited with the bags and looked for our gate. Thankfully there were 2 gates we could go through to get to our train, and we were slap bang in the middle of them both. Finally, one point to us! (So what does that make it now? China 5, us 1?) The short journey back to Guangzhou South went with ease; we just spoke about the previous night and sorted out some rough plans for the last weekend of November (I'll come back to that in a minute).
So, we'd made it back to Guangzhou, the last stretch. For Cassie, it was a metro ride, for me, another taxi. It's safe to say my taxi experiences that weekend were not going well, and this was no exception. There were 3 different taxi ranks, I had no idea what the differences were, so I started at the one closest to the building. Nope, after waiting in a queue of about 20 people, I got to the front, showed the driver my address, just for him to wave me away and pointed to the next taxi rank. Off I trot; thankfully the first one was the only one with people waiting for their turn to hop in a taxi. Again, I showed my address, same response. Obviously the one I needed was the last one, the ones furthest away, and the one that had only 2 taxi's waiting, and both drivers sat around smoking. The guard came to me and looked at my address; he very kindly smiled, nodded and opened up the taxi door for me. All the while, the driver was chunnering away in Chinese, getting in a right huff with the guard and motioning for me to get out of his backseats. The guard stuck by his guns, and insisted I stayed where I was, and had a few very loud choice words for the driver who eventually stubbed out his cigarette and got in behind the wheel. He pulled away and took my phone to read my address. He read it back to me. And read it back. And read it back again. He turned to look at me (while driving) and said it one more time, and made the universal gesture of "phone someone". Who was I to phone? I shouldn't have needed to phone anyone! I live in a very well-known community complex that was only 20 minutes away from the station. Anyway, I rang my Chinese speaking friend Kim (the Canadian) and asked her to just tell the driver where I live. I handed the call over to the guy and he simply said "Wey? Wey…wey? WEEYY!?" (which is like their version of: hey/hello/yes – basically they say it to start every phone call conversation.) He threw the phone back to me and to my dismay; my lovely 3/4 year old phone had taken this very moment to do one of its favourite tricks… to not allow me to hear what the other person on the phone is saying. Yay phone!… Kim sent me a voice-clip of my address which I managed to play back to the driver. Still no clue. He was driving alongside other taxi's and shouting the name of my community complex to them in hope of being told where to go. No luck. Kim then sent me her address (which is less than a 5 minute walk from my home, but outside of the Country Garden walls) thinking this would be simpler for him to head towards. Again, no such luck. He continued his very slow meandering drive repeating my address to himself, and calling god knows who on his phone. I then found the card for the Country Garden Resort Hotel in my purse, which has a full address on it and a map of Country Garden. Surely this would get me home!? … I'm truthfully not sure where I would have ended up if I hadn't have stopped him as soon as I saw anything familiar! Would I have ended up at my front door, on Kim's road, at the hotel, or somewhere in-between? Who knows! I jumped out at one of the Country Garden gates (Xie Yuan – West gate, the opposite end of where I live) and waited for one of the free internal busses heading to Dong Yuan… Finally I was on home turf and 100% heading in the right direction for home.
Sunday evening, I collapsed into my bed, tea in hand, and stuck on a movie (or did I read my book? I can honestly say I don't remember). Despite being so bloody tired, it would have been lovely to have a chat with some of the family, but everyone back home had had a busy weekend themselves: Mum, Sam, Dean, Sheryl, Taff etc. singing their hearts out at the rugby celebrating bald-man's birthday. And Dad and Nat were doing various outdoorsy things with Nat doing a crazy big cycle for charity and dad, both working and being there for support. Nana and Grampa were probably busy trying to tame my very nosey and inquisitive bunny who has, I've just been informed, got the balls (not literally, sorry Brain I took them from you when you were a pup!), to venture into the kitchen. He now officially thinks he rules the roost!
I've been missing home quite a bit the past week or so, not so much I'm crying myself to sleep at night or anything! (If anything's going to make me cry into my pillow it's my phones lack of ability to charge fully and work properly meaning sometimes my alarm doesn't go off…) Bonfire night made me miss the UK, seeing everyone's clips and pictures of them all wrapped up warm, sparkler in hand and fireworks booming. The Teal/Bromley/Parker/BW clan heading to Cardiff made me wish I had mums luxury to just nip home for weekend trips. Alice being back from travelling means my lot are back together again for nights out and catch ups. And Dad sending me pictures of the every so beautiful, yet sadly aging, Pip, makes me crave a night at Oakwood in the garden, in front of the fire, pups at my feet, and conversation with Dad and Nat about everything and anything. I've also been trying to think of and plan peoples Christmas presents, which is making me thing of family and friends even more. But, hey-ho, I get through it! I've not yet got to the level which makes me reach into my envelope from Hannah and tear open another "Open when…" card, although I'm sure I'll need to soon.
I'm trying to keep myself busy, trying to get back into the habit of being a yes person again. I've put my name down for a council run 6k walk around Foshan that takes place on Saturday. Although they grossly misjudged the amount of interest this would accumulate and they now have to select a lucky 300 from over 1000 applicants, so I'm not holding out too much hope. One thing I jumped at the chance to say yes to and book tickets for however, was Clockenflap festival which is in Hong Kong on the last weekend of November. I'd heard about it a month or so ago but it had completely slipped my mind until Nick (a Kiwi in grade 5) mentioned that him and a friend had booked weekend tickets. I rushed home that evening and ignored the huge stack of marking I had brought with me, and booked my ticket (for the Saturday only though sadly). Cassie, Mickey and Carol have also now all bought tickets so it should be a really good weekend. How amazing is it that I can casually book a ticket for a music and art festival in Hong Kong and just nip over on the Friday night (by train, bus or ferry) and then be back in time for a good sleep before work on Monday! I may not be able to head down to Cardiff for a family rugby weekend, but I can do that, and that's pretty cool.
So yes, this weekend is a possible 6k wander around Foshan seeing the sights. The weekend after is going to be more than eventful at Clockenflap. And then BAM we're in December and I'll have left home over 3 months ago, Sam & Dean will be heading to Basel, moving into their new home and celebrating Sam's birthday. Nana will no doubtably (not sure if that's a word) will be paying a visit to Manchester Christmas Markets which I still miss dearly. Sheryl and Taff will have been over to see mum and the markets there too. A busy time for all of us, but hey, when isn't it?!
"Move. As far as you can, as much as you can.
Walk in someone else's shoes or at least eat their food.


POLITICO last year reviewed the activity of 33 conservative PACs for the 2014 cycle. Combined, they raked in $43 million dollars, according to the POLITICO report. Of that, $39.5 million went to overhead including $6 million to entities owned by PAC operators; candidates got $3 million.
Jossey reports that there have been a few successful challenges in court based on false advertising and that "FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel has pushed to expand the commission's authority into this realm." But, he laments that the conservative media has not been sufficiently active in policing these schemes.
Jossey also reports that the Tea Party has not been alone and that "high political overhead isn't new, nor is it limited to Republicans.
With respect to Jossey's provocative title, I would like to suggest that the Tea Party has not been killed. The Tea Partiers may have committed may mistakes in their efforts to respond to dysfunction in politics and government, but the circumstances that gave rise to their movement have only grown worse. While the form and process of the Tea Party movement may have been temporarily arrested, the emotions that gave rise to the Tea Party have not been "killed" and I predict they will shortly reignite.