My Connections to Play!

“Children need the freedom and time to play.

    Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

   “Children learn as they play. Most importantly,

            In play children learn how to learn.”

My biggest supporter was my mother, with seven children she needed us to stay busy. She always made sure we had enough indoor and outdoor toys to play with. I never realized why that was important to her until I overheard a conversation she was having with her sister where she stated how she kept us busy playing so we wouldn’t fight with each other. After that my aunt and my grandmother made sure we also toys, especially when we visited.  

All our friends within our community was the best, we all had friends that liked to share the same outdoor activities and those were the best days. If we were not in the playground or riding bikes we were playing games in the courtyard, such as; 4 corners with a basketball, marbles, hide and seek, red light green light, simon says, and so many more. The best part of our community was the Boys & Girls Club that was available to us after school, they too kept us very busy.

 

 

      

        The best toys ever!!!

In today’s world, play is so very different in so many ways. As far as indoor toys, the only thing children want to be on these days are electronics, iphones, ipads, X-Box, & PSP 4’s. In my time, board games, cash registers, tea sets, and doll houses were the best. In regards to outdoor play; we had bikes, bats and balls, marbles, we played in the dirt, rain, and snow, but most of all we had an imagination. I am not sure at all what children play outdoors anymore because I do not see many children outdoors. The best part about play back in my time was that boys and girls played together, both indoors and outdoors. Today I see more boys with boys and girls with girls.

I wish more children of this generation were more like children of my generation. We were too busy playing and burning off so much energy that ADHD wasn’t an issue. Today so many children are being diagnosed with ADHD and have to depend on medication just to get through a day in school, this is heartbreaking. If children were allowed to burn off energy, and socialize with other human beings Mental Health would not be on the rise.

Play for me existed, it was fun and safe, all I had to do was have fun. As a parent and a member of a close not family, we try to instill a lot of the old games we use to play in our children. The only difference is that they only play these games with the family, and they enjoy every minute of it. I just do not think it is something that they would do with their friends, “it’s not cool!” We just spend as much quality time together doing fun activities so that they too can have some memories and one day also share with their children.