My Connections to Play

Quotes on Play
 

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

Plato

“In play a child always behaves beyond his average age, above his daily behavior. In play it is as though he were a head taller than himself.”

Lev Vygotsky

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.”

Leo F. Buscaglia

"For children, play is as natural as breathing—and as necessary."

Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld,
U.S. early childhood educator and author


My Childhood Play
Outdoors, in the mountains during summers, I used to enjoy most of all:

Bike rides with my brother.My brother and I would take our bikes and go out exploring until the sun sets and we had to go back. The weather in the mountains in Lebanon used to be so fresh and my favorite time was when the fog covered the streets and I would be lost amidst it…

 

 Watching ants work. The ant world was so amazing to me that I used to spend hours watching them in action. Until now, as a grown up, if an ant caught my attention, it is bound to distract me from whatever I was doing…

Indoors, my favorite things to do were completing puzzles and playing board games with my siblings and my dad, who was a full-time parent and welcomed playing with us. We played Backgammon, Checkers, Risk, etc…

Trivial pursuit was my favorite. I loved learning new information about other countries and other worlds. I love this game so much that I bought it for my kids as a video game…

 

Barbie dolls. The things that really attracted me to Barbie were the tiny props and gadgets. When I could not really afford to buy the big fancy doll house, I remember building it using different material I found lying around. I used to spend hours taking up roles and making stories using my dolls. When my parents did buy me a small doll house eventually, I kept using old material to build new furniture all the time. I also made outfits out of old rags. The whole process was actually more fun than playing.

Come to think of it now, I think this had a lot to do with me going into Interior design and Art major.

Thoughts on Play

I believe that because I was a child who grew up during the war, the actual times that I was given the opportunities to play were extremely valuable to me; and I did not take them for granted. Spending quality time with my dad and the chance I had to bond with my brother and sisters were significant contributors to my healthy development. Even the times I had spent alone making up scenes and stories as I played with my dolls, were times, I know now, that I was building up my social skills and enhancing my creativity.

It is just sad that children today lack so many opportunities and spaces to engage in self- initiated play. Due to more exposure to TV, video games, and computer tablets, children’s play nowadays revolves around toys rather than on play itself. It is always the new toy in a commercial, or a new super hero, or a T.V. character. When I see my children still engaging in dramatic play, or playing hide & Seek and Dodge Ball, I feel there is still hope in this world. I know this will significantly contribute to their creative sense and social skills. Play in childhood plays a critical role in shaping the person one becomes as an adult. As educators, we have the responsibility to nurture this aspect of children’s growth and provide them with means that allow them to explore and create.