My Connections to Play

Quotes

"Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn." ~ O. Fred Donaldson

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning…They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play.” ~ Fred Rogers

Essential play items -

When I was younger, I used to put on plays using my Strawberry Shortcake dolls.  I would set up a box and put on a show for my parents.  Of course I always had audience participation!




I loved to create different clothing designs using my fashion plates.  I would create them and then "sell" them to my family members.




I always enjoyed playing the part of the "teacher".  I used to sit and create students names, activities to be taught and would have my family and friends participate in the activities.  I loved to grade the papers at the end.

I am grateful to my family for supporting me through my play.  They never discouraged me from doing what I loved to do.

I feel that play today is much different than it used to be.  Children do not participate in pretend play like they used too.  It has become a more technological world for our children today.  They are playing more games on game consoles, watching more television shows, using ipods, ipads, and computers more now than ever before.  I would love to see more children playing outside.  That is something that you rarely see anymore.  I would like to see less time indoors using electronics.

Play as a child was less structured and more pretend.  Neighborhood friends would gather and we would: play cowboys and indians, climb trees, catch crawdads in the creek, ride bikes, play wiffle ball, and kick ball.  We did not have electronic devices like they have today so we had to be more creative.  I do not think that this was a bad thing.  I feel like I am the person I am today partially because of the activities and games that I used to participate in.