Connections to Play

 Quotes that represent play in my childhood

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

               ― Plato

“Genius is play, and man's capacity for achieving genius is infinite, and many may achieve genius only through play.”  ― William Saroyan

 

 

Growing up I always knew I wanted to be a school teacher and I would play school all the time.  I would use my dolls as my students and would teach them lessons.  I would use paper, chalkboards and books to play pretend school. 

As a child growing up we played with dolls, played kick ball, hide and go seek and other outdoor physical games. Sometimes I would hate to go outside, especially during the summer because it was so hot but my parents encouraged us to engage in physical activity.  Sometimes my parents or even grandparents would come outside to play with my sisters, cousins and I and that would make it that much more fun to have them interacting with us.  

In today's world most children would much rather watch television or play video games and feel like it's a punishment to go outside and play.  It's sad but parents don't even reinforce childhood play like my parents did when I was growing up.  This is one of the reasons I feel child obesity is at an all time high because they don't engage in enough physical activity.  Parents should encourage their children to play, read books and they should minimize the use of video games and television.  If parents new the importance of play in a child's development I believe they would be more apt to encourage play and even participate in it with their children.  As a early childhood professional it is my hope that parents become more knowledgeable about play and development of their child and its importance.