A child's environment should provide sensitive support. For example, my daughter never wanted to go sit on Santa's lap but she did want to stand by and watch as other children went and sat on his lap. I provided sensitive support of her initiative to get close by and watch but never participate. A child's environment should encourage friendships so when I was raising my daughter we would have her friends over for play dates and she went over to her friends house for play dates, birthday parties etc.
Children need time to play without being denied the opportunity to play due to misbehavior or schedules. To support initiative the environment should provide opportunities to plan and implement the child's plan. For example, when my child was eighteen months old we were going to go visit my oldest brother. I knew she would want to play for a while when waking up and that it couldn't just be us getting up and getting ready and out to the airport so I scheduled time for her to play into the schedule. Parents should provide opportunities for children to learn about their bodies and how to use them in different ways. This is done through gross motor skills such as jump rope dancing etc. To provide my child with these opportunities I bought her jump rope, built obstacle courses and took her to the park.
Indoor activities support initiative in children and should empower children to develop initiative in socially appropriate ways and focus on safety and active supervision. Socially appropriate ways means not screaming at parents or children when a child wants something but asking in a kind way. For example if my child would scream at me or talk to me in a disrespectful way I would say, "I don't like it when you talk to me that way it makes me sad. Say can you help me please." I would then have her say the phrase and then help her or get her a drink etc. Safety and supervision means making sure play equipment is used correctly and that parents don't go too long of a length of time without checking on their child to see what they are doing. For example, my daughter used to like to sit on her easel but the part she liked to sit on folded in and out and I didn't want her to fall so I wouldn't let her sit on that part of it. I taught her to either sit in the chair that came with it or sit on the desk part of it that was more sturdy. I would also check on her every 15-30 minutes to see what she was doing. If she was in her room playing I would just peek in and make sure I knew what she was doing, that it was safe and she was all right and then I would walk away.
The outside environment helps in developing initiative because the outdoors allows children to explore, experiment, take risks, make mistakes and try again. For example, it allows a child to learn how to climb the stairs on the slide, ride a bike, get safely in and out of a pool, cross a street etc. Playgrounds or parks have different surfaces that teach a child about textures such as grass, sand or wood chips. Sidewalks provide a safe place to ride bikes, walk away from traffic etc. All of these environments help teach children initiative as they choose what type of activity they want to do in their environment and parents help them by giving them safe, good choices to make and teach them about things in their environment that might hurt them.
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