"My Connections to Play"

         

            If I were a young child again sitting in a wooded area with a small stream nearby, it would be the perfect paradise for me and for three of my childhood friends. I can imagine the joy in such serenity as I embrace the natural world in its entity.  E would not need any material because everything is in the world around us. Our hands and feet and minds would be our most cherished materials. The short and tall trees would be my associates as I envisage myself climbing the trees from branch to branch. If they are fruit trees then it would be us exploring the taste and which of the fruits to pluck. Before we know we would be in another part of the forest foraging and cropping our way through the thickets aimlessly just for the fun of it. Maybe some beautiful butterflies would be flying by and we will each want to own it with utterances of “that blue one is mine “ 0r “ I like the yellow one”, or “No, that one I told you is mine”. We will argue back and forth but in the end we will peacefully switch to some other form of distraction or play. I know this time it will be the small stream. We would play in the water; throw it on ourselves and at each other’s face and just laugh, scream and yell in ecstasy.

Favorite quotes that summarize what play represented for me in childhood

“Play is  a treasured commodity that causes nothing but brings in pleasure, laughter, and inner peace to an individual.” Ghongkedze Mary

“I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things… I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind.”   Leo F. Buscaglia

“ If I get to pick what I want to do, then it’s play…if someone else tells me that I have to do it, then it’s work.” Patricia Nourot

“Play provides a continuation desire. We desire to keep doing it, and the pleasure of the experience drives that desire. We find ways to keep it going.”  Stuart Brow

Include two to three pictures of essential play items for your younger self

Playing with basins of water used to be a favorite child play

The dance around and stoop play used to be a great exercise growing up.

There is nothing as soothing as playing with mud especially to see who gets rubbed most with mud.

Describe how people supported play when you were younger and/or the role of play in your childhood.

I was younger my parents knew play was part of growing up. I can remember when my mom would shout out to me to do the dishes and go back to play. Sometimes she insisted for me to do certain chores before I could join my friends to play. Thus she recognized it was necessary for children to play.  If any one came crying during play parents would scold the crying child and let them know accidents do occur during plays. Play was unconsciously or I should say culturally organized. During moon lit bright nights all the children would gather from 7pm in the chief’s compound to play. We will pretend to count the stars, we will tell imaginary stories about a man with an axe in the moon; we will sing, dance, tell stories, and do hide and seek. When it was 9 pm then a parent would ask the children to go home to sleep. There were no Televisions, resort areas, movies, yet we played and enjoyed ourselves with the natural God given resources in our environment. We never had toys bought from the stores. We made our toys ourselves. We could make pretty dolls by sewing old cloths together. We could use clay to mould different figurines and name them. The boys could quickly peel plantain stems and shred the leaves, and tie it with numerous ropes to form a soccer ball and they will enjoy a good game with what had been improvised. Yes that was growing up poor but very happy and peaceful without any stress. At school we had no restrictions, there was nothing like a personal space, short and long breaks were time to socialize and run around and play.  If we went to school with our lunches we would share and eat veraciously so that we could have enough time to play

Write a brief entry on how you feel play today is similar or different from the play in which you engaged as a child and what your hope for young is now with regard to play.

    Today play is very different from what it used to be when I think about my  play days as a child. I enjoyed playing unrestricted. As children we all loved playing with friends, siblings, and in our neighborhoods. I remember vividly how play was part of my life. I could play all day long with my siblings and friends without getting tired.

At school we would run and chase each other, we would rough and tumble play just like the boys did and we would do pretend play of preparing fufu a traditional dish. These were forms of physical, social, and fantasy plays (Ginsburg, 2007), and for the most part the girls would play part of the mother and boys will pretend to be the dad. At the time it was just fun and the neighborhood children would gather and play different types of play from peek -a- boo to hide and seek.  The merry go round, hopscotch, and the hand -clap games were my favorites. There were symbolic in that unconsciously, it taught us how to count numbers, we learned to rhyme and sing songs with particular rhythm. As we jumped and skipped the ropes it coordinated the actions of singing, jumping and clapping simultaneously. Today play scenario is very different. There are a lot of restrictions on children to go out and play freely in the neighborhoods or even on playgrounds maybe of insecurity reasons. The fear of child predators was totally absent in my country.

In the twenty first century, some mothers do not want heir kids to get muddy and there is constant watch or yelling out not to get into the dirt. As Ginsburg (2007), points out play indeed helps children to   master their world, develop new competencies that lead to enhanced confidence and the resiliency children will need to face future challenges. It seems to me we built more immunity from eating raw unwashed fruits in the wild, we had no sweaters but constant play kept the cold away, we knew we had to skip and jump on cold chilly days. Little did we know at the time, that it was good exercise for the mind and soul. One big difference for me is the fact that our parents never physically played with us, but at the most they could narrate oral tales and legends about the towns and the villages. They seemed to understand that play was a child’s thing.

Nonetheless, the friends I cherish the most today are my childhood friends because of the plays we indulged in growing up. What I hope for children today is for them to grow up as children enjoying the art of play. Play creates that forum for social interaction and building long lasting friendships. The benefits of play cannot be down played, as teachers, parents, and caregivers, we need to be aware of these benefits and encourage more free play with children and for children. Through out my life play has been my source of comfort. I love to dance, cook, run, and I love to have fun with friends. My children act like clowns sometimes and it keeps me thrilled. A good laughter relieves any tension I have built up in my body. It is all part of play! As found by researchers, children engaged in socio-dramatic play experiment with words, phrases, and idioms they have heard and learn new and more complex ways to express themselves (Almon, 2002; Bergen, 2002; Bergen & Fromberg, 2009). I highly recommend the concept of play and its importance to be mandatory in the school curriculum.

References

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education.  

      Gateways, 43. Retrieved from

       http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW43almon.pdf

Bergen, D. (2002). The role of pretend play in children's cognitive   

        development. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4(1). Retrieved

       fromhttp://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v4n1/bergen.html

Bergen, D., & Fromberg, D. P. (2009). Play and social interaction in middle childhood.

         Phi Delta Kappan, 90(6), 426-430.

Ginsberg, K. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy 

        development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics,