My Connections to Play

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning. -Fred Rogers (American television personality)

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. -Plato (Greek philosopher)

I chose these two quotes because I felt they really summed up how I felt while I played when I was younger.  All of my play demonstrated what I had learned or observed in my life.  If someone were to sit down and play with me then (and probably even now) they would learn about how I viewed the world.  They would gain insight into my feelings, my opinions, my beliefs.  Though as a young child I didn't realize all that was evident in my play, I now see that it was. 

Some items I played with regularly were my Barbies, coloring books, my chalkboard, and anything I found outside.  Most of my play during childhood was dramatic/pretend play.  With my Barbies, I would always make up scenarios for them, usually of things I had seen on t.v. or in real life.  With my chalkboard I would play school (this was a daily play activity for me).  I would be the teacher and would line up all my dolls and stuffed animals to be my students and would pretend to teach them as I had observed my teachers teaching me.  Outside, I would pick flowers, grass, wild onions, etc. and add water from the hose to make "stews."  I had an old pot and shovel that I would put my "ingredients" into and stir and stir.  My dad was a big soup/stew cooker and so I mimicked what I saw when I would go outside. 

   

I feel that the people surrounding me supported my play not necessarily by joining in (I usually played independently) but by not interrupting my play and by being role models for my imagination.  Everything I observed throughout my days would appear in my play.  Soap operas my mom would watch would become the scenarios for my Barbies.  Watching my dad cook would encourage me to pretend to do the same.  After being at school all day I would come home and pretend to be the teacher.  It seems like I was always playing and no one ever interrupted that play.  They never told me not to play with something or to play with it a different way.  I feel that gave me the freedom to play on my terms and make sense of what I had observed in my own way. 

Today I feel that the way children play has changed in many ways, though it is still the same in some ways too.  Children play more with technology today than I did as a child.  I also don't think parents encourage thier children to participate in pretend play or give them the chance to do so as much as mine did.  Pretend play was my main way of playing.  Today, it seems like children don't know what to do when given the chance for dramatic play.  They are too used to being told what to do, even when playing, that when they have the freedom to do what they want they are at a loss.  This being said, I think ways play hasn't changed is that children still enjoy pretending.  They still enjoy the same types of play I did as a child, they just need to be given the chance to do it.

Throughout my life play has had an important part.  I am a very thought oriented person, meaning that I spend a lot of time thinking about things that have happened or that are going to happen.  I imagine what might have been or might be.  This is where play comes in.  Where, as a child, I spent so much time engaging in pretend play by myself to make sense of my world, I do the same now only now it is only thoughts, not played out with materials.  I feel that thinking about things like I do allows me to organize my thoughts, and my life essentially.  Without so much pretend play as a child, I don't think I would be the critical thinker that I am now.