Danish childcare centres reflect Fröbel’s legacy as they prioritise children’s free play. The children may choose themselves what they wish to play and with whom they wish to play. The pedagogues’ role is mainly seen as that of helping children in conflicts and in need of comfort. However, is children’s play at childcare facilities actually that free? Or is freedom something adults imagine?This article illuminates and discusses children’s free play and the opportunities for participating in play at childcare centres, based on the project “Children’s play and social relations” – a project involving ten childcare centres. The purpose was to understand how children’s play and social relations are constituted at childcare centres and to reveal how pedagogues can intervene to support and develop children’s play and social relations with a particular focus on including all the children.The project results showed that in terms of children’s free play and development of social relations between the children, the children were left largely to themselves, although the participating childcare centres differed widely in this respect. It was also evident that the children’s play was not particularly free, but subject to a number of conditions, ideas and routines at the centres, which, in practice, limited the play and affected the children’s opportunities for forming peer relationships and friendships – for some children more than others. Finally, some of the centres had practices that helped to develop the children’s play and to include children in the social groups. The project also revealed that the pedagogues could experience difficulties when changing routines that limited the children’s play and friendships at the facilities.In light of this, the article identifies and discusses the extent to which free play is possible in the context of child-care facilities, as well as how pedagogues can work on providing excellent playing conditions for children.I danske daginstitutioner prioriteres med arven fra Fröbel børns fri leg højt. Børnene kan selv vælge, hvad de vil lege, og hvem de vil lege med. Pædagogernes rolle anses primært for at være at hjælpe børnene i konflikter, og hvis de har brug for trøst. Men er børns leg i daginstitutioner nu så fri? Eller er den frihed noget, vi forestiller os som voksne?I artiklen belyses og diskuteres børns fri leg og mulighed for deltagelse i leg i daginstitutionen på baggrund af projektet “Børns leg og sociale relationer” – et projekt i ti daginstitutioner, hvor formålet var at forstå, hvordan børns leg og sociale relationer konstitueres i daginstitutioner, samt hvordan pædagoger kan arbejde intervenerende i forhold til at understøtte og udvikle børns leg og sociale relationer med særligt fokus på at inkludere alle børn.Resultaterne fra projektet viste, at børnenes fri leg og udvikling af sociale relationer mellem børnene i vid udstrækning var overladt til børnene selv, dog med store variationer mellem de deltagende institutioner. Desuden viste det sig, at børnenes leg ikke var så fri, men underlagt en række betingelser, forestillinger og institutionsrutiner, som i praksis begrænsede legen og påvirkede børns mulighed for at danne peer-relationer og venskaber – for nogle børn mere end for andre. Endelig var der i nogle af institutionerne eksempler på praksisformer, der bidrog til at udvikle børns leg og inklusion af børn i de sociale fællesskaber. Projektet viste også, at det kunne være vanskeligt for pædagogerne at ændre de institutionsrutiner, der var begrænsende for børnenes leg og venskaber.På denne baggrund indkredses og diskuteres, i hvilken udstrækning fri leg er mulig i en daginstitutionssammenhæng, samt hvordan man som pædagog kan arbejde med at tilrettelægge gode legebetingelser for børnene
