My Connections to Play

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

-Kay Redfield Jamison

When we treat children's play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that's to be found in the creative spirit. It's the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.

­-Fred Rogers 

        

 The people in my life supported me in play by just allowing time for uninterrupted play.  Life just seemed so much simpler then.  We came home from school, had a snack, did homework (which I do not remember taking half as long as it did my children to do) and then went outside to play. All age groups played together. The older ones played alongside and with the younger ones. There was no need for a “play date”. We did not come in until dinnertime.  We lived in NYC, Queens in a garden apartment.  A garden apartment has three two story buildings and a courtyard in the front.  There were grassy areas with trees and bushes in the middle surrounded by a sidewalk.  The sidewalk made a complete circle almost like a track. My first picture is a big wheel riding toy. My “court” was filled with children. Everyone had a big wheel or for the older kids bicycles.  We used to ride around the sidewalk every afternoon.  Games constantly evolved over time.  The bushes became toll booths and gas stations as big wheels became cars.  Our parents sat outside with us, chatted and just let us play.  

My next pictures show my true love when I was a kid.  I just loved open-ended art supplies.  My parents supported this passion with me, my brother and all of our friends.  My parents never worried about there being a mess. They just encouraged us to explore and create.  What I remember most is that my parents and my mother’s mom would sit with us and actively engage in creating as well.  We had such great role models for creative play. My grandma was very much “old school”. She loved coloring books.  I think she did more pages than I ever did.  My dad loved to sketch and draw.  I know that is where my first love for artistic creative expression came from.  I guess that is why I love early education. We used all of the media above and more.  Collage stuff was abundant.  We always had bits of this and scraps of that to work with.  Play built naturally when my brother was old enough to play with me.  My parents always encouraged us to play together when we were not fighting. All of these materials easily turned into games of school. Those art materials turned into homemade books and projects.  My friends and I would take these supplies and play school, restaurant and office. We used our imaginations to turn those bits of paper into anything we needed in our game.   

Card games were also a big part of my childhood.  The older kids taught the younger ones how to play all kinds of games.  My best memories are going to my grandmother’s house, sitting at her kitchen table, eating ice cream and playing card games and having uninterrupted time with her.   

Play today is similar to the play in which I engaged.  Children are always going to love riding toys and learning to ride bicycles.  There are a lot more choices now with regard to toys on wheels.  There are scooters and skateboards and all kinds of toys I see in my neighborhood that I do not even know the name of any of them.  Children are not spending enough time outside playing. It is harder now as both parents are working and children are in daycare longer. Parents are putting their children are in so many after school activities. When I grew up, we all lived in the court or a nearby one. We all went to the same school. We walked to and from school together.  Now kids in the same neighborhoods are going to different schools. Play dates have to be scheduled. Children now need a scheduled time for socialization. Our parents could be outside with us or they could have stayed in the apartments. All they needed to do was look out the window or not at all.  The world was a safer place then. We could just be free to play and interact with our peers. 

Children are going to always want to create.  I wonder though if families encourage their kids to experience creativity and art in the way that I did.  Do parents consider all of that messy play just too messy for at home?  I hear it every day with children in my own class.  When they are working on their masterpieces in my classroom and want to continue it at home. They are always saying that they don’t have the same art materials. Mommy does not let me do that at home.  Young children are supposed to explore and make a mess. That is half the fun. 

Children today are playing video games and engaged in technology. It always amazed me that my children had their friends over. They would be engaged in play with each other but each on his own devise. It always looked like parallel play. My children could even play with their friends on-line and not even be in the same room. 

My hope for young children is that free play and creative expression are not lost. Children need time and space to run and play. Children need to be able to initiate games, create games and have the freedom to explore the world around them.

Play has been an important part in my life through childhood and adulthood. I have wonderful memories of play as a child. Just simply have time, stuff and space to play. As an adult, I have enjoyed play with and through the eyes of my own children.  As my children were growing up the same types of toys were important.  The four of us were always on some sort of riding toy or bicycle. My kids were always encouraged to be creative and use all kinds of open ended materials. I included the picture of the play dough because they spent hours playing with play dough. It was one of their favorite things to play. To this day, it is one of my favorite things too. Neighborhood kids used to always come to our house to play cards. My grandmother taught me games, I learned new games from other children and my kids and their friends taught us new games. I would love to watch the children interacting.  They were able to make sure everyone knew how to play, executed the games and made sure the rules were being followed, without adult interference. As they were engaged in play they were learning and growing physically, socially and cognitively.  Playing now for me revolves a lot around exercise. My husband and I walk, run, lift weights and ride our bicycles. We used to play tennis. I would love to go back to it. Play is important through childhood and adulthood. Children and adults need to make time to play. When asked about my thoughts on the role of play throughout childhood and adulthood, I go back to the quotes I picked.