My Connections to Play

Albert Einstein said, “Play is the highest form of research”. When you play you are completely enthralled in the activity.  Your imagination and creativity is running wild.  When your creativity is present, you start to investigate, create, innovate, and research other entities you may not have done so if you were present in a more constricted environment.  I believe as a child, a lot of my play was researching.  One of the main ways my parents liked to play with us was to go on adventures.  I remember as a child just getting in the car and having no idea where we were going or what we were doing, nor did my parents. During the car rides, if we saw something cool we would stop to investigate.  Many times these car rides lead to us learning about something new and researching about a topic more.  Sometimes that would lead us to playing with new games or new things.  For example, one time we took a ride and my brother spotted a cow farm.  The farm ended up being a milking farm. My family learned how to milk cows and make butter.  For several weeks following this adventure, my brother and I pretended to be farmers.  This lead to an obsession and we learned more and more facts about farming and agriculture through playing.  Whether my family took a nature walk, bike ride, trip to the fair, trip to the park, played a friendly game (board or sport), or crafted there was always an element of research involved.     

Almon (2002) says, “Play helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it” (p. 1).  One of my favorite toys to play with as a child was Barbie’s.   My childhood friend and I would role play with the Barbie’s different elements in our life we were experiencing at the time. We would create these elaborate story lines before playing about what conflict the Barbie’s would have to resolve and discuss the characteristics of their lives.  Some of the elements discussed were peer pressure, popularity, adolescence, friendship, puberty, love, family, sibling revelry, support, etc.  There was always an element of truth to the scenarios we played out for our Barbie’s.  Whatever we were experiencing in our life, we had our Barbie’s play it out.  I remember we also used them to relate to people.  Sometimes we would make our Barbie’s be poor or had their parents going through a divorce.  Although this was not our reality, this was an element of life we were trying to understand as a child.  We also used our Barbie’s to fanaticize about our life as an adult, the careers, family structure, economics etc.  Barbie’s were a therapeutic toy for me looking back on it now. 

As stated before my parents were very supportive of play.  They were active in our lives and enjoyed playing with us.  Other than taking us on adventures, my parent’s participated in a lot of physical play and games with us.  We played many sports as a family.  We took many bike rides and went on nature walks as a family.  We also had game night every Friday where we would play 2-3 board or card games.  I do not recall what my life was like when I was in daycare, therefore I cannot remember the relationship I had with play.  In school, I went to a traditional public elementary school.  The key memories I have of activities I enjoyed in school or of my favorite teachers were of teachers who supported play within the curriculum.  I have distinct memories of my first and fifth grade teacher.  I remember in first grade feeling like school was not work. It was too much fun to be work.  My fifth grade teacher allowed us to use our imagination and creativity a lot.  We did a lot of group projects as a class.  A couple of activities that stick out in my mind were writing a classroom song for the school talent show and playing store.  During one lesson we invented our own item to sale.  We made the items and priced them ourselves. Then we played store to learn about profit, losses, consumers, etc. My good memories of school from childhood are of those who supported play.  

I think the concept of play is still the same for youth now as it was for me when I was a child.  The concept of play is something self chosen by the child that brings enjoyment to them.  I feel the application of play is different in children now-a-days.  Technology has changed the way the youth plays.  When I observe my parents who have children, the first thing the children asks to do when they get home from school is to play video games.  As a child, I was outside 24/7.  There came a time my parents had to put a time limit on dinner because my brother and I were rushing through our meal to get back outside to play.  When I was a teacher, I remember parents telling me their children were rewarded for good behavior or good grades with time to play on the Wii or X-box.  There reward was not to play outside or go to the park, as it was when I was a child.  

Technology has also changed the parent’s way of thinking.  Parents do not seem to encourage their children to go outside.  Many parents give their child an I-pad with a game on it to entertain their child instead of taking the time to play a board game with them.  The other day, a friend of mine took their children on a hike and their kids said to them after the hike, “this was so much fun, why don’t we do stuff like this more often”.  Therefore, children still crave the same type of play that was present when I was young but technology has changed society.  Today’s youth play video games and games on tablets for entertainment.  Is apparent today’s youth are becoming more violent due to the amount of video games and TV shows they are exposed to.  I also feel technology is taking away from children’s creativity and imagination.   When I was a child, we would build forts with blankets.  Now there are apps where you can create your own world on a tablet or phone.  It is sad to observe today’s youth become more and more obsessed with technology.  Technology definitely has its purpose and benefits in this world, but when it comes to children, I believe taking the technology away will enhance today’s youth’s health, relationships, social skills, and creativity/imagination.  

Play as a child was pure enjoyment.  I know my parents taught me the concept of responsibility at a young age.  I was not allowed to play until all of my homework was complete or my chores were done.  In elementary school, I started to view play as a reward for my hard work.  This is the role play still has in my life as an adult.  The difference in my adult life is I understand the value of play.  When I was a child it was just fun so I wanted to do it.  As an adult you have more responsibilities and have to prioritize all of your task and objectives in a given day.  I understand I must be responsible and go to work, even if I want to just play.  As a child I did not understand the value of work, although my parents were trying to instill the concept of responsibility in me. As an adult, play and work balance each other out.  I cannot be successful in one without the other.  I cannot play all day without working because I would not have the means to support my play habits.  This is also vice versa, I could not work all the time without playing because I would become burnt out and have too much stress.  Play is a stress reliever as an adult.  Play is also an essential part of maintaining relationships I have as an adult.  I have to make the time to enjoy activities with my friends, husband and family.  Almon (2002) says “creative play is a central activity in the lives of healthy children” (p. 1).  I believe play needs to be a central activity for anyone to have a healthy life. 

References

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved from http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf