"My Connections to Play"

QUOTES

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

-Kay Redfield Jamison

 Play allows you to gain personal growth, social skills, cognitive skills, physical skills, and it enhances children’s creativity.  When I was not able to play outside it really made me sad.  It was just as much a part of me as eating and sleeping was.

 Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning

-Fred Rogers

 Play gave me the opportunity to practice cooking and caring for my dolls.  This was important to me because my mother cooked for me and she nurtured and cared for me.  I mimicked my mother whenever I could while I was involved in play.

 

PICTURES

 

 

Playing with dolls was one of my favorite play times when I was in nursery school.  Taking care of my baby was very important to me because my mother nurtured and took good care of me.  Feeding was the most important play time for me.  I loved feeding my baby while she was sitting in my arms.

 

 

My favorite play time was cooking.  This was important to me because I often sit in the kitchen with my mother and watched her prepare me great mills.  She would talk to me about safety tips in cooking as she cooked.  I wanted to be the best cook in the world so I practiced cooking eggs at the nursery school I attended every day. 

SUPPORT

 When I was young teachers and parents supported play.  I can remember how my teacher would sit with us and pretend to eat what we had cooked on the stove.  She would move from one center to the other participating and interacting with the children as they played.  It appeared to me that the teacher enjoyed seeing us smile, interacting, and playing.  My mother also took time out to take me to the park often.  It was a joy to meet new friends at the park.  Some are still my friends today.  The swings and the merry-go-rounds were my favorite.  It was always a thrill to sit down on the merry-go-round while an adult pushed us around until we begged to get off.  There was so much parental engagement in play time when I was younger.  This was really great for us because we got to exercise, socialize, and grow up as healthy children. 

DIFFERENCES IN PLAY TODAY

 As I reflect back on play when I was in nursery school and preschool I get a good feeling that brings a smile to my face.  My experiences were great.  I can remember the various centers that we were able to play at that contributed greatly to my cognitive, social, and emotional skills.  For example when we played with the blocks we learned to count, recognized shapes, our alphabets, and the list goes on.  We learned how to socialize and interact with others, we learned what emotions were and we formed lasting relationships with other students and the teachers.  When we played on the playground we got a chance to exercise which allowed us healthy development.

Now play is not prayed upon.  In fact, a lot of parents are not even familiar with the different types of play and how it contributes to their child’s cognitive, social, emotional, and healthy development.  They are not educators so they don’t know what is involved in play.  Stands and benchmarks that most states develop clearly identify what is expected of students at the end of each grade including preschool (Geist, Baum, 2005).  Even in nurseries they have a curriculum that has been developed to identify what students should be taught.  So the play that we had has been chopped down greatly.  Students still have play but the time is so limited.  We played it seems forever.  It appears that no one is concerned about what is best for the child anymore.  Everything that teachers do is about getting the subject introduced and staying on target with what they have to introduce next.  Sometimes students are left behind because they have not mastered the concept.  Teachers still have to move on.  So my question is how can we say that No Child is Left Behind when in fact they are.  I sincerely hope that we can advocate making others see how important play is in child care centers, nursery schools, preschool, and school. 

Why?  Because children do learn a significant amount from each other while they are playing and they form relationships lasting relationships that allows us to have better schools, and communities.  As we advocate I hope that others will recognize that play is needed and reinstate it to its norm.  That means play inside the class and recess as well.  The difference in my play then and the play now has taken a drastic change.  I played with dolls, doll houses, and cooked on play stoves.  Children today play with electronic games.  Most have IPOD’s, IPhones, and IPads at an early age.  This to me isolates them from most real social interactions.  Although they can face time people it just seems that the one on one contact in the classroom worked better for me.

THOUGHTS OF PLAY

I feel the role of play in my life was very instrumental in me becoming the passionate, caring, and intelligent person that I am today.  Play allowed me the opportunity to learn, share, care, and have a healthy lifestyle.  Play also allowed me the opportunity to form relationships with people whom I still interact with today.  It allowed me the opportunity to mimic my mother in cooking and caring for others which I think is really important.  It enhanced my cognitive skills by allowing me to learn colors, numbers, geometric shapes, and measurements by playing with the sand.  Play also allowed me the opportunity understand others emotions when they were not happy.  Throughout my childhood play in school was the one thing that taught me how to share.  Because I was an only child it was very hard for me to share with others.  In spite of my mother’s teaching me to share it was still a difficult task until I observed others sharing during play at school.  Being able to be creative and having your imagination working overtime was another positive impact of play during my childhood

 

References

 

 

Geist, E., & Baum, A. (2005). Yeah, But's that keep teachers from embracing an active curriculum. Young Children, 60(4), 28-36.   Retrieved from the Walden Library using the ProQuest Central database

Retrieved from http://www.thestrong.org/about-play/play-quotes

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