My Connection to Play

“Children's games are hardly games. Children are never more serious than when they play.”

MONTAIGNE, Essays

                            

“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

  From the age of at least three years old I can remember playing and having fun. I can remember my teacher in Headstart giving me toys to play with when I was upset that my mother was leaving me there.

The adults in my life encouraged play most of the time. Looking back now, it may have been more of a way for them to keep us busy while they did grown-up things, but nevertheless we still had fun and learned so much from so much play.

In my opinion, play is so much different today than it was when I was a child. Children today seem to only be concerned with video games, social media, and sports. Sports used to be a really good way for children to experience structured play but are now fierce competitions used to satisfy parental desires. The children aren’t being allowed to have fun when playing and have tremendous pressure on them to play hard to be future athletic celebrities.

When I was young there were video games out but we played them when we came in from a long day of playing outside. I know many of my students know nothing about playing cards. Me and my friends could take a deck of cards and play twenty different games with them.

I noticed that Target now has a section in their toy aisle of Retro toys that were out when I was growing up. I was as excited as I was at 5. I think this is awesome and bought some toys for my baby there. I hope that more parents will do so and introduce their children to some of the classic toys that allow children to build their intelligence and character through play.

I can definitely attest to how important play has been in my life. I played games that allowed me to use my imagination and intelligence. We played solitaire, speed, and 21 with cards and all of these games required logic, concentration, dexterity, and math skills. We played the Game of Life and never even realized how realistic it was. You had to spin the wheel to see how many kids you would have, what your occupation would be, and figure out if you made enough to support your family. How real is that? I always had a car full of kids in the game and swore I wouldn’t have any in real life. Irony at its best proved me wrong. I did however remember the lesson learned in the game by securing a career to support me and my family!