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.