“My Connections to Play”

Special Play Quotes:

Almost all creativity involves purposeful play

Abraham Maslow
American psychologist 1908-1970
 

When children pretend, they’re using their imagination to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand.  A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.

Fred Rogers

American children’s television host
1928-2003

Favorite play items and places

I made dinner



   Quest though the forest     



Pretend to be a baker

 

My Childhood  play experiences

When I was a young child my mother encouraged me and my siblings to go outdoors to play. She would give us old pots and pans to play with and would come to check on us to see what we were up to. She would pretend to eat the dinners we made with the red dirt and ask questions about what we used to make it. When I got my Easy Baker Oven, she would ask “what is my little baker creating today”. This was the best creative time in my life. I would pretend to measure the ingredients, mix them put them in the sun or my oven to cook     . The interaction between my siblings was positive and very special because we never had fuss over the things we were playing with. We would play outside for hours and never complained about the heat or cold.

When we visited my grandmother I would go on adventures in the woods. I would pretend to be explorer looking for unique objects, animals and pretend we were camping out using my grandmother’s swing set with pillows and old curtains. These types of play were an important part of my growth and development. It enhanced cognitive, language, social and motor skills without the direct instruction from my parents.

 Today play is different from when I was a growing up. Children are not interested in playing outside or during gross motor activities. They have so many toys and computer games to play with. They can turn computers on, login and find websites. Some of them will play games such as basketball, football or on playground equipment but I observe very little imaginary play.  They ask to go inside because the weather is too hot or cold and what to play with the many store purchased items in the classroom. We need to help children get back to the true power of play.