My Connections to Play

 Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.  - Friedrich Froebel

Play is the highest form of research – Albert Einstein 

 

As a child I grew surrounded by family. My maternal and paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were my neighbors. Being surrounded by family, my parents let me roam freely in the neighborhood during the day. My grandparents had a large yard and my cousins and I spent many hours playing there. We had picnics,   dug for treasure, rode our bikes, flew kites, made leaf crowns, swung on the swing hanging on their mango tree, caught lightning bugs, ran races and played cricket. We really didn’t have many toys so we were forced to be creative. We were lucky that my grandparents were always good sports, ready to support us in our play. I remember draping a sheet over dining chairs to make a house. I also remember my great uncle, an amazing kite maker, showing us how to make kites using ekels from coconut branches and tissue paper. I remember helping my grandmother grind rice into rice flour, scrape coconut, take care of the garden and help her make jams and chutneys from the fruit we picked. While all this might sound like work to an adult, it was all good fun for us. No one made us do it, but we learned some real life lessons that we have carried on into adulthood. As my cousins got older and went to school, I remember playing with my grandparents and later on as my little brother got older playing with him in our room.

Thinking about how the nature of play has changed over the years, I see many differences in how I played and play in my daughter’s life. Our lifestyle is dramatically different from when I was a child. We have a lot more demand on our time and a lot to get done during the day. My Mom was a stay at home Mom, while I am a Mom working fulltime and attending graduate school. I spent all day at home until I was four while my three year old daughter spends almost 9+ hours away from home daily leaving little time for free play outside. The focus on academics has increased and parents are feeling pressured to include structured activities, leaning toys and devices into their day to ensure that children are ‘learning’. I went to preschool for a few hours and went back home and played while my daughter has many ‘learning’ toys that I never did. Parents have a lot of demand for their time, and often the answer to keeping kids engaged while they get their work is in the form of electronic devices. Once again, I too am guilty of this! While the kids maybe watching educational videos or playing learning games, they are missing out interactions, use of their senses and experiencing the natural world. We didn’t have a tv until I was about ten and wasn’t really allowed to watch much. On the other hand, my daughter knows how well enough how to operate my iphone. I also feel that children nowadays have too much ‘stuff’ that inhibits them from using their imagination and being creative. Children need open ended materials that can be used multiple ways instead of toys that are more structured. Guilty again! My daughter has many toys while I played with sticks, leaves and stones. Another issue I see that has changed the nature of play is that of safety. Concerns about their children’s safety drive parents to keep children indoors versus playing outside if they are unable to supervise. There have been many times when my daughter was disappointed that she had to stay indoors because I had too much to do to be able to be with her while she played outside. Although, changing times have changed the nature of play, I hope that as adults we can reflect on the role of play in our own childhood and try to recreate the same for our children.

Looking back at my childhood, I feel so fortunate to have had such rich play experiences as a child. Childhood play taught me many skills and much about the world around me, all of which I have carried into adulthood. As adults, our responsibilities take over our lives and we forget to stop for a moment to actually enjoy life. As a parent, when I look at my three year old daughter, I remind myself to choose to ‘play’ over ‘work’ whenever I can. I think as adults we would be less stressed and happier if we all learned how to ‘play’ and experience the joy we once did as children.