My Connections to Play

Play is such an integral part of any child's development and always has been. Unfortunately, over the years, there has been a push for children to spend less time playing in educational settings and more time preparing for standardized testing. Early childhood program often claim that they are child-focused, but they push children to follow such a strict curriculum that the fun of learning is lost.

When I was growing up, my mother was a stay-at-home mom up until I started Kindergarten. I remember spending the majority of my time at home playing in the backyard on the swing set or riding my bicycle in the driveway. When I played inside, I would line my stuffed animals up along my bed and pretend to be "mom", bottle feeding them and tucking them into bed. I did not have a television in my bedroom until I was a teenager and even then I had to share it with my sister. When I wanted to watch television, we usually watched it as a family. If I told my parents that I was bored, I was told to go play outside. My older brother was often into playing sports, so he would be practicing baseball or football in the yard with my father. My sister and I were six years apart, which was a significant age gap, so I was often left to play by myself. I do not necessarily regret that because as I grew up, I always preferred my alone time and still do. My alone time is when I tend to be most creative with what I have around me.

I watch my 3 year old daughter play now and there are some similarities to the way that I used to play. She loves to role play with her stuffed animals and other dolls. I will proudly say that that she had her stuffed animals potty trained months before she actually was. She loves to be creative with arts and crafts. The one main difference that I notice is the emphasis that she places on watching television and other technology. I truly do not agree with using a television as a babysitter, but there are times when a parent has to get something done and that is the only way to keep a child's attention. My daughter has also figured out how to use our cellphones to find games and other activities without our help. I try to limit the amount of "technology" time that she has, but looking at the way the trends are going, her educational experience and other areas of life are almost guaranteed to be heavily influenced by technology. I try to set time aside to just sit down and play with my daughter so that she can still see the importance of having that freedom to express herself.

Here are a few pictures that represent play as I was growing up:

 

This swing set is very similar to the one that we had in my back yard when I was growing up. Our swing set also had a baby swing hanging from it and I would often take my stuffed animals outside and push them in the baby swing.

 

 

This bicycle is similar to the one that I had growing up. I would often ride around in my drive way or once I was a little older, I was allowed to ride around the block as long as I did not cross the street. With the crime these days, I would not trust my daughter to ride her bicycle anywhere without having an adult present with her at all times.

 

 

This was my childhood friend. Pooh bear went everywhere with me. My grandmother gave him to me. When my daughter was born, I asked my mom to get one for her to pass down the tradition. I'm glad to see that my daughter loves hers as much as I loved mine. The one difference between them is the name. For some reason, she came up with the name "ho bear". We have no clue where that name came from.

 

 

Here are a few quotes that I believe reflect the importance of play:

 

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation."  -Plato
 

 "Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood." -Fred Rogers
 

"It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity." -Michel de Montaigne

Tiffany Booze

Quotes were retrieved from BrainyQuote.com