My Connections to Play

Play, while it cannot change the external realities of children’s lives, can be a vehicle for children to explore and enjoy their differences and similarities and to create, even for a brief time, a more just world where everyone is an equal and valued participant.

Patricia G. Ramsey
Contemporary American educational psychologist

Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

Kay Redfield Jamison
Contemporary American professor of psychiatry

Creative play is like a spring that bubbles up from deep within a child.

Joan Almon
Contemporary American educator

          I am dating myself when I talk about play for me as a young child.  I was fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood where there were a lot of children.  When I was really young (3-5), I played closer to the house, but my two best friends lived two and four houses away.  I was free to go to those homes whenever I wanted as long as I told my mom first.  
 As I got a little older, I was free to go anywhere in the neighborhood.  After breakfast I would go outside to play and not come in again until my mom called me for lunch.  There was a creek that ran behind our home that we would play in when it was warm enough.  There were woods behind the creek.  We would play in the woods for hours.  Our dads together built us a tree house in one of the trees.  It was three stories tall.  They put old furniture in it.    Our dads also hung some swings from trees where there were openings in the woods.  We also made pine tag forts.  We went bike riding for hours on end.  There was a huge field two doors down from our home.  We would play ball or different forms of tag there.  We played hopscotch and jumped rope on the dead end section of the road near our home.  There was a farm beyond that.  Geese, ducks and cows would escape from the farm and come into our yard.  We would chase the animals back to the farm.  Disappointment filled the air when our moms called us in for supper because we knew that we wouldn’t see each other until the next day.

 

We also played at school during recess.  There was a huge playground.  There was a blacktop section for jump roping or Chinese jump rope.  A baseball field was also a part of the playground.  There were swings, seesaws, sliding boards, a merry-go-round, monkey bars and stationary bars for doing pull-ups and chin-ups.  Learning to take turns and negotiate were a big part of recess because several classes would be out at the same time.

Play is similar today in that there are opportunities for children to do the same kinds of things that we did as children.  Where I live now, I am glad to see children out riding their bikes or playing a game of kickball in the street.  They make hopscotch boards on the sidewalk.  Not all children have that same opportunity however.  Some of our Head Start children do not live in neighborhoods that are safe for play.  That is why I am glad that we have a playground when it’s nice outside and a gym for play when they cannot get outside to play.  Our classrooms have 30-45 minutes of outside play.  It is unstructured, but teachers help with problem solving ,as needed.

Play is different because many children are involved in at least one organized sports or other activity.   I sang in the choir and was in Girl Scouts.  That’s all there was as far as outside activity.  There are all kinds of technology to entertain children today.  We had transistor radios and a tv with four channels.  I do remember watching Captain Kangaroo.  I still remember and love the books that he used to read to us.

I think that it is important to continue with play throughout life.  For me, working in the garden, going for a walk, swimming at the pool, doing counted cross stitch, riding bikes with my grandchildren are ways of escaping the workaday world.  Being outside brings me a sense of peace.  It helps to relieve stress.  It also can help with decision making and problem-solving.  You just have time to think about anything or nothing at all.
I just read an article in AARP Bulletin about multigenerational playgrounds in Florida.  Grandchildren and their grandparents can do exercise in the same place and both benefit.  How cool is that!

References

Ginsberg, K. (2007, January). The Importance of Play in Pormoting Healthy Child Development

       and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds. Pediatrics, 119(1), 182 -191.  Retrieved from

       http://www.aap.org/pressroom/playfinal.pdf
Ramnarace, C. (2012, March). A Whole New 'Go Out and Play!'. AARP Bulletin, 53(2). 16-18