My Connections to Play!

Quotes!

“This is the real secret of life—to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”

-Alan Wilson Watts

“The boy planted his hands on his hips and a broad smile lit his face. “My name’s Peter, Can I play too?”

-Brom, The child Thief

“Dance. Dance for the joy and breath of childhood. Dance for all children, including that child who is still somewhere entombed beneath the responsibility and skepticism of adulthood.  Embrace the moment before it escapes form our grasp. For the only promise of childhood, of any childhood, is that someday it will end. And in the end, we must ask ourselves what we have given our children to take its place. And is it enough?”

-Richard Paul Evans

Essential Play Items for my Younger Self!

A watering can for daily gardening!

Hills, trees, rocks, creeks, flowers, and bugs!

Rope swings (both then and NOW

Play was definitely considered the “work” of children when I was growing up. I remember my nursery school and kindergarten where I learned to socialize with children outside my family. The classrooms were large with dramatic play, block, and art areas for my classmates and I to explore and develop at our own pace. The playgrounds were filled with tricycles, wagons, and balls for hours of play and physical activity.  When I wasn’t in school, I was riding my bike to the creek at the end of our street. I loved catching tadpoles and skipping rocks with my siblings and friends. We also spent hours at the neighborhood pool and in the schoolyard behind our house. I remember only going home to eat and get a hug from my mother before heading back out for another adventure. I loved playing “teacher” and my father built a big playhouse in our backyard where I pretended to teach neighborhood preschoolers. We planted seeds in the garden and took neighborhood nature walks together. I had pet ducks and enjoyed watching their eggs hatch and helping to care for the ducklings. The days seemed to go on forever and I never remember feeling any kind of pressure or stress.

Unfortunately, I believe play has changed a lot sense I was a child. Today, early literacy and math curriculum have taken the place of creativity and imaginative play in many early childhood classrooms. Teachers feel pressured to prepare children for standardized assessments and are finding it difficult to schedule play into their lesson plans. Also, parents don’t feel safe giving their children the freedom to play outside unsupervised. There seems to be a need to plan playtime for children. We didn’t need play-dates when I was a child. We simply met outside and decided what we wanted to do together. If we couldn’t agree on what to play, we would chant “eeny-meeny-miny-moe” until an activity was chosen. We never needed adults to intervene. Many children are also over-scheduled today with several organized and competitive activities because their parents have been led to believe it is beneficial to receive a “head-start” preparing for their futures. And sadly, when children do have free time, it is often in front of televisions, computers, and video games.

My hope for children today is that parents, politicians, school administrators, and educators will begin taking the advice of early childhood professionals who’s research has proven that play is essential to development and contributes to the optimal cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. (Ginsburg, 2007) Almon explains that children are born with an amazing urge to grow and learn. In developmentally appropriate settings, children set the pace for development with support from caring adults. As adults, we need to step back and honor the innate capacity for learning that “moves the limbs and fills the souls of every healthy young child.”(Almon, n.d.p. 3)

Let them PLAY!

References

Almon, J. (n.d.) The vital role of play in early childhood education: 1-35

Ginsburg, K. (2007) The importance of play in promoting healthy child development

and maintaining strong parent-child bonds, The American Academy of

Pediatricians Vol. 119 No. 1