My Connection to Play

The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.

~ Bill Cosby

 It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.

                                                                                                                                ~Leo Buscaglia

Play Items

   

       My friends

When I was growing up, I played mostly with my siblings and cousins.  We would play marbles, make rings and bracelets out of wire, draw the game Hopscotch in the sand and throw a rock in the blocks as we hopped on one leg.   I remember playing Red Rover, Ring Around the Roses, and Hide-and-Seek.   We spent a lot of time outside playing when I was growing up, because this was during the time adults used the term “Children should be seen and not heard.”  If we were not doing chores, we were outside playing.    

Compared to my upbringing, play is much different today.  According to Almon (2002), "Children no longer have the freedom to explore woods and fields and find their own special places.  Informal neighborhood ball games are a thing of the past, as children are herded into athletic leagues at increasingly younger ages. Add to this mixture the hours spent sitting still in front of screens - television, video game, and computer - absorbing other people’s stories and imaginations, and the result is a steady decline in children’s play" (p. 1).  Play has taken on a whole new meaning today than it had during my era.  For starters the economy is better now so families can afford to buy their child almost anything they want.  We on the other hand had to make up games to play and make do with what we had.  We also didn’t have the luxury of cable television, Wii games, cell phones, IPods, computers, etc during my time.  Children today have so many choices to choose from that little time is spent outside.  A lot of children today become what we consider couch potatoes; thus displaying health issues such as childhood obesity.   I wish that every child could experience the childhood that I did, because I appreciated and cherished this time with my family.   We didn’t take things for granted like children and families do today.   I remember one year, my dad bought me the biggest red bicycle you would ever want to see (at least that is how I saw it) and I remember feeling as if he had just bought me a brand new car.  I feel that the pure essence of play is something all children should be given the opportunity to experience, because without it, they risk the chance of missing out on a world of valuable information that otherwise may not be obtainable.

Article: Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved from http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf