My Connections to Play

All throughout my childhood I loved playing with my younger sisters.  We often came up with new games and activities to keep ourselves busy while our parents were working.  I was always in a rush to grow up looking forward to being an adult.  As an adult, I see that I was being silly and had no idea what was in store for me.  The following two quotes are familiar to me and made me smile when I saw them, reminding me of the easier times as a child.

Stay a child while you can be a child. - STEPHEN SONDHEIM, Into the Woods

Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play. - MONTAIGNE, Essays

I always played in my backyard as a child.  We had a giant closed in yard with a swing set, pool, and lots of grass to use as our playground.  The following pictures were items that I was never seen without.  The first one is a shovel to dig up dinosaur fossils, which I was convinced I found at one point.  The second is the container in which I kept whenever I found a cool insect or weird object when I was digging.  The final is what I remember our swing set looking similar too.  It brings back a lot of fond memories.

Growing up we were always encouraged to play.  We were allowed to play outside with the neighborhood kids and were not looked for till dinner time.  My parents set the downstairs of our house up so that we had a kitchen area as well as our toys all in a central area.  We would be down there for hours on the days when we could not go outside.  The parents in the neighborhood also made sure we had the right equipment to play baseball or soccer games amongst the children on the block.  Everyone was very active and had a great time playing outside.  They all supported our play and encouraged us to go outside and interact.  We were taken to different parks to play larger games of baseball and never thought twice about staying till all hours of the night.

Play today is very different from when I was a child.  Parent’s are working much more and often have to rely on either people outside of their families to watch their children or technology to keep them occupied.  Children, even the preschool children in my class, are being placed in front of a TV or game system and left alone for hours.  They are not being encouraged to get off the couch and run around outside for some fresh air.  They are no longer creating games or rules like I did while I was a child and are often lacking the imagination to come up with their own methods or strategies when they play a game.  My hope for the young is that they learn to put down the controllers and turn off the TV.  They need the physical activity and the fresh air.  Children need to run around and get out the extra energy that they are building up by staying indoors not doing anything.

Play always played an important role in my life and it still continues to do so.  I enjoy being active and going out to do things.  The activities in which I partake have changed over the course of the years but they are still similar to those that I enjoyed as a child.  Without play as a young child, I feel that I may not be as active and enjoy interacting with others.  It prepared me for the real world in terms of sharing and listening to other’s ideas before expressing my own opinion.  Those experiences have shaped me into the adult today who still loves to have a good time and run around with the soccer ball at the park.

Relationship Reflection

Relatioinships are extremely important to me.  I have always had one pariticular person in my life who I was extremely close to or looked towards for assistance.  I have been with my fiance for 3 years now and will be married next year.  We have been friends for at least 10 years proir to our dating.  Without him, I have no idea how I would make it through my day.  Relationships help us develop and become stronger as an individual.  They also help give us the social interaction that we some times need that others will not be able to provide for us.  Having one particular relationship or partner that is able to calm us when needed or make us happy on a rough day, helps to make each day more enjoyable.
 
I have two main people with whom I have positive relationships.  The biggest one would be my fiance who is able to put up with me on my roughest days, regardless it be from stress or something that happened at work.  Another positive relationship is my mother.  She has gone through a lot in her life and it gives me inspiration to keep trying and working hard. Nothing has come easy for her and each day she walks around with a smile on her face just happy to be alive. 

The relationships I have with my fiance and my mother are completely different.  I feel more comfortable telling him certain things about my finances or about a fellow co worker where as my mother is my confidant and the stuff I cannot tell him I know I can tell her.  My relationship with my fiance is positive because he has helped me grow to be the person I am.  Although we have only been together a short time, we have been in each other's lives for much longer.  We have always been looking out for each other, making sure the other one was making the right decisions in life.  Whenever I get upset about something small, he is quick to bring me back by reminding me of all the good I have in my life.  The support I get from him helps to make our relationship stay strong and give us the confidence that we will be successful in marriage.  The relationship with my mother also has positive factors such as her giving me the comfort of confiding in her information that I normally would have kept to myself.  It helps us have trust and know that the other will not share the secret.  My mother is also very honest with me.  I consider that factor a very big aspect of strengthening our relationship.  Some times the truth hurts but we need to hear it anyway.
 
Along with positive factors, there can also be many negatives ones as well.  I have had friends that I have known since kindergarten that we no longer talk.  It is difficult at times but they were not being very supportive or helpful in my current situation.  By them not providing me with the support and guidance that I needed and only focusing on the negative, it hurt our relatoinship signifcantly to the point where we stopped talking.  Being able to tell someone your honest opinion, especially a close friend, is always helpful but when you insist the other person is wrong and never let them figure it out for themselves, there can be quite a bit of problems.  Another challange to developing and maintaining relationships can be something simple as communication.  Without either person willing to pick up the phone and call, the lack of communication can ultimately end a friendship.  Friends should not wait for the other to call.  Often everyone gets wrapped up in their own lives and forgets or too much time passes.  We need to remember to call when were thinking of them and just say Hi.  A little goes a long way.

A partner is someone who you can depend on in good times and the bad.  Whenever someone quickly throws in the towel, they are not the right person.  A partnership has to be mutual between two people.  If one is putting in all the work, the relationship will never make it to a partnership stage.  In order to be a partnership, two people must be willing to work together and solve any issues, listen to the other person, provide care and compassion when needed, and most important communicate with each other.
 
The experiences I have with relationships impact my work as an effective early childhood professionally quite a bit.  By having the strong relationships with my fiance and mother, I feel more confident talking with the families of my students as well as my coworkers.  I enjoy talking with others and listening to what they have to say.  The families that come into my room are more comfortable discussing their problems with me because they know I will listen and not interrupt.  I enjoy what I do and working with the families is another perk.  By having the strong relationships that I do, I am able to strengethn the ones I have within my school by taking time to listen and talk with everyone.  Communication is the most important tool anyone can use.