In Defense of Sticks
Parents, I am begging you: please stop telling children not to play with sticks.
Have you ever wondered why nearly every child, regardless of where they live or what toys they own, eventually picks up a stick? Unlike most toys, a stick doesn’t tell a child what it should be. The child gets to decide what a stick becomes each and every time they pick one up.
Today it could be a magic wand, and tomorrow that very same stick or a different stick could become a tool for digging, a sword, a hiking staff, building material, a flag, a paintbrush, a measuring tool… the list is almost endless. The same stick can become ten different things in ten different minutes because the child—not the toy—is providing the imagination. A stick is one of the most open-ended “toys” a child will ever find.
We’ve talked a lot on this blog about the benefits of children being bored and how creativity, itself, is born in boredom. We’ve talked about how when adults try to fill every moment of a child’s day they inherently take away the opportunity for that child to become bored – and subsequently take away the chance for that child’s creativity to emerge.
We’ve also talked about how screens can distract children from one of the most important jobs of childhood—to observe, imagine, explore, and actively participate in the world around them.
Now let’s talk about how a stick can and does encourage a child’s creativity and allows them to fully participate in the world around them.
A stick encourages a child’s imagination because a stick has no batteries, no instructions, no sounds, no screens, and no “right way” to use it. Sticks connect kids with nature because they don’t just find sticks, they also notice trees, bark, leaves, insects, fallen branches, weather, seasons and much, much more.
Perhaps the most wonderful thing about sticks is that they cost absolutely nothing.
They don’t require batteries.
They don’t need charging.
They don’t come with instructions.
They don’t become outdated.
And children don’t care.
A child has never walked through the woods wishing the sticks were newer, brighter, or more expensive. They are perfectly content with what nature has already provided.
Sticks allow a child to be present and fully participate in their world.
Every stick is different. Children naturally compare them, test them, discover which ones are strong enough to hold weight, which ones bend, which ones break, and which ones work best for the job they’ve imagined. They’re constantly experimenting without even realizing they’re learning.
Sticks can also encourage healthy risk-taking because kids are learning:
- how to carry something long
- spatial awareness
- body control
- how to judge distance
- how to avoid hitting others
- how to solve problems
As adults, our instinct is often to remove anything that might involve risk. But children don’t learn good judgment by avoiding every risk—they learn it by experiencing manageable risks, making decisions, adjusting their actions, and discovering their own capabilities. That’s how confidence grows.
When children have these opportunities they are also constantly learning how to assess risk – and how to keep THEMSELVES safe. This is a necessary, real-life skill that cannot be effectively taught without actual experiences.
So the next time your child proudly picks up a stick, resist the urge to immediately tell them to put it down.
Watch what happens instead.
You may think they’re holding a stick.
They think they’re holding an adventure.
And maybe… they’re the ones seeing the world correctly.