My Connections to Play

 "Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs." - James L. Hymes Jr.

This quote really embodies a lot of what play was for me as a kid. I didn't have any siblings for the first eight years of my life so a lot of my time was spent playing with my cousins. And often while we were playing, we would dare each other to do things or try to problem solve something that was going on in our games so that we didn't have to bother our parents. We were all rather independent children and I think it comes from the fact that we were always playing together.

"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning." - Mr. Rogers

I remember often playing pretend with my cousins, playing games based on favorite tv shows or games that we really enjoyed at the time. But each time we played, there was always something within the game that we'd been learning about from others. We would often play Power Rangers and in doing so, we'd bring in a lot of what our parents taught us or what shows would teach us. Being kind to others and being helpful were two of the biggest lessons that were rather heavy in our imaginative play.

Tamagotchi's were the thing to have when I was a kid. For anyone who doesn't know what they are or perhaps just never had them, you take care of a creature called a tamagotchi. I would spend hours and days just raising these little guys. In a weird way, it made me more capable to take care of my dogs that I now own.

The gameboy color was the first gaming system of any kind that was my own personal thing. I shared most of the bigger consoles with households or would play them only when with my cousins, but the gameboy was mine and mine alone. I would spend hours playing games like Winnie the Pooh or Super Mario Bros. But the game that I loved playing more than anything was Pokemon. I still play them now, always finding myself excited when a new one comes out.

I could spend hours playing with legos back as a kid and now as an adult. There's something satisfying about building something with the little blocks and being able to show it off afterwards. I would often just make cubes and show it off to my parents telling them I'd made a house. There was something fun and creative about it.

My parents were incredibly supportive of my play as were my aunts and uncles. They were always of the persuasion that we would learn more if we kids were to play, especially together, that we would get far more out of our time than just sitting around with the adults. They were more apt to push us to play than to let us just sit around and do nothing or watch tv for hours on end.

I feel like play today is pretty similar to how I was as a kid, at least in school settings. I can't say anything for how kids are at home, but within my facility at least we have a huge emphasis on gross motor and imaginative play. We give kids access to not only areas that allow them to run and dance around but also toys that they can use to play by themselves or with others. It's very similar to how play worked when I was a child.

And I will say as a whole, play definitely helped me become a more independent adult. The older I've gotten, the more I'm capable of doing things on my own. But it also helped me to understand the value of play when working with kids. If I hadn't had the ability to play the way I did as a kid I don't think that I would be able to help facilitate play in the same way within my classroom. It's truly come in handy and I couldn't be more thankful.