Kids Today – a Fresh Perspective on Childhood

Kids Today – a Fresh Perspective on Childhood -Kids never stop learning, and every new experience is also a learning experience, one way or another. While a lot of learning happens in school and during classes, everyday activities for kids are just as important as scheduled study time. But as adults, sometimes it seems impossible to try and imagine how kids themselves experience the world; while we can remember our own childhood, life for children has changed a lot.

The Kids Today project, a series of six videos made by Surf Excel that extends their long established interest in child development and activities for kids, was created because of this problem. The project aims to explore a children’s perspective on life, showing us how kids learn, play and have fun – and the results are intriguing.

Understanding kids in today’s world

Being a parent is always challenging – especially in today’s world, which moves at a very quick pace and leaves little time to stop and think. Mums especially are often torn between letting their kids simply enjoy being kids, and making sure they acquire the necessary skills to become successful and accomplished adults. Our children are busy with schoolwork, have plenty of extra-curricular activities scheduled, and are easily distracted by computer games and television programs. It is important, as parents, to understand what they are going through in order to help them find a healthy balance between work and play.

The Kids Today Project – a fresh perspective on childhood in six short films

Kids Today Project claims to provide a fresh perspective on childhood – and that’s what you get with these videos. Using the EyeViewcamera,which was designed specifically for the project, Surf Excel has managed to collect some pretty astonishing footage. A comfortable head camera, built to stand up to the rough and tumble of life as a kid, the EyeView is the closest you can get to seeingthe world through the eyes of a child.

Busy time, play time

The short films show what life is like for kids – and it looks busy. They often spend more time studying than their parents do at work, all while balancing a schedule of classes, activities, and play time, which is sometimes all too brief.

The series has six parts, focusing on different aspects of modern childhood. For example, one shows a day in the life of children, from when they get up to when they go to bed. A notably timely video explores how children fit into city life, which, according to the kids filmed, often feels overpowering and noisy, and even scary. Interestingly, their biggest complaint is that the city restricts space to just play and be a kid.

Kids Today is dealing with questions of what it’s like to be child, constantly growing, constantly experiencing change, with so much to do and discover at the same time. The films reach some interesting conclusions, the most important of which is that playtime – experimenting, exploring, and getting messy – is really an important part of childhood: Not only for fun, but for development, for making friends, figuring out how the world works, and sometimes, just to relax from a busy day.

So what lessons can parents take away from this? Life can get messy for kids at times, and that’s how it should be. It’s important to embrace messiness as a part of childhood. And, for all their busyness, kids today are just like us when we were their age: Inquisitive, fun loving, adventurous, and playful!