Kids can be entertained by the simplest of activities. I remember when I was little my mom would always make my brothers and I play outside. Partially, I suspect, to try and keep the house clean rather than solely for our own health and benefit, which was what she always told us the reason was.

Anyway, my brothers and I would spend hours coming up with scenarios and lands that we could play out and imagine. One of the more popular choices was Pokémon. We would run around and pretend to battle each other and beat the different gyms. We did everything without any help from technology, although I suppose it did serve as a basis for our games.

Yesterday I was playing with some campers at my summer camp and I lay down in the grass to catch my breath and relax for a moment. They started snatching up handfuls of grass and throwing them on me, and then asked if they could bury me with grass. At first I thought to myself, this may seem like lazy counseling, just laying down and letting kids bury me. But they all really wanted to and I wasn’t going to deny them the pleasure of burying someone in grass. So I got to lay down for a good twenty minutes while they worked on covering me in grass. There were a few close calls when a few stray blades found their way near my eyes and mouth, and I definitely got a nasty mosquito bite on my ear, but it was all worth it. I had been buried in grass.

I think it’s amazing that those kids spent a full twenty minutes of their life yanking grass out of the ground, putting it on top of someone and loving every second of it. I think it’s amazing that that same scenario could have been recreated one hundred years ago. I think it’s amazing that those kids were able to find joy out of something so simple and silly.

Childhoods these days are too often filled with complicated and expensive means of entertainment, which can be very, very fun but are also very, very unnecessary. It astounds me how many ten-year olds I have met this summer who have iPhones and spend their free time playing online games rather than board games. I even had a nine-year old camper who requested to follow me on Instagram.

The evolution of childhood is becoming more and more reliant on technology and manufactured toys rather than the imagination of a child, and the happiness of spending time with a friend. I am glad that I get to work at a place where children are encouraged to see joy in simple things, and where kids can feel free to be goofy and silly and use their imagination. Even counselors get to let out their inner child with no fear of judgement.

Being able to feel free enough to be the true you without anyone critiquing you, or the constructs society sets upon us is a rare and beautiful feeling. I think kids need to feel that way, and I think that adults even more need to feel that way.

Let kids be kids, without any outside influence to corrupt the excitement and joy of being free to let their imagination glow.