My Connections to Play."
The two quotes that I feel summarize what play represent for me in my childhood are:
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato
“The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.” G. K. Chesterton
“The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.” G. K. Chesterton
The next are a few pictures of the different ways I used to play growing up.
Growing up we did just that, played. I was outside early in the morning to play with my friends. We rode our bikes around the neighborhood. We went to the school and played on the playground swinging, climbing on the monkey bars, running around chasing one another. We might start a game of kick ball or red light green light. We played until we got tired and hungry. Home we go to eat and then back out.
The supported we got was from the parents watching after us, making sure we were ok by letting us play but checking on us every now and then. There was no one that I can remember just constantly bothering us. As I said, my friends and I played outside.
Play today is so different from the play in which I engaged as a child. A thing that is call play is not play it is entertainment. The children do not have to move much to be said they are playing. Watching videos and playing computer games does not mean one is playing. To me that is being lazy. Where is the fun, the freedom to laugh and explore. The children and the parents know nothing about that.
My hope for young is now with regard to play is to go outside and discover the world. Explore the places you dare not go. They are waiting for you to see all the good things that God had put on this earth. Yes we must be careful in which my friends and I were we went exploring, but we had so much fun learning about each other, sharing our thoughts and ideas, not just making friendships, but sealing the deal on them as well. Some of these relationships turn in to great adult friendships as well. I am in contact and still friends with people I grew up with.
There are several of us in our group that had play experiences as children that involved spending many hours playing outside. It is very true, as you said, that children today are mostly entertained. When my children were young, I gave them lots of opportunities to play outside and inside. Our house borders the woods and has a little stream in the back, and my children would often be back there exploring. I'll never forget opening the door one day and finding my 3 year old son standing there clad only in his underwear and covered with mud. He and his sister decided to have a mud fight. Well, mud washes off, and they had a wonderful time. My son was also the one who spent hours making his own little worlds out of paper. He made people, weapons, buildings, etc. and would create stories to play with them. When he learned to write, his stories came directly from those hours of play.
ReplyDeleteThe most important fact is that everyone had fun.
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