My Connections to Play

When I was growing up we (me, my brothers, cousins and friends) played outside all the time. Especially in the summer, we went outside in the morning and only came back when we were called in for dinner. There were no adults to tell us what to do or how to do it. We had to make decisions and negotiate rules and taking turns all on our own. We made what we didn't have so we had to use our imaginations, brains and anything we could find around to create what we needed. This quote kind of summed that up for me.
The children, through play, can pace themselves appropriately, make choices and develop self-confidence. Through play, children can try and try again until they
succeed or decide when to elicit help, when to give up, or when to modify plans and intentions without feeling that these attempts have been a failure. Children, through
play are unraveling the world at their own pace, savoring new experiences as they unfold, reconstructing and revising them. Essentially the child is in control. This
active exploration, this involvement and the sense of ownership of the activity and experience enables the child to feel sustained and satisfied.
Heaslip (1994)
Now this is Fun…
Playing kick the can until it was so dark we couldn't see anymore and then getting flashlights to play ghosts in the graveyard or flashlight tag
Making a course to ride the mini bike on- and we would go around and around for hours
Riding the baby calves-or at least trying to while grandpa stood and laughed and laughed
Playing in the corn bin and climbing to the top of the hay bales and jumping off
Running through the sprinkler
Building snow forts with these really cool plastic things that made the snow into rectangle shapes that we stacked like a brick wall and then had snowball fights
Helping grandma and grandpa in the garden Gathering eggs from the hen house with grandma Helping grandpa mow the yard and drive the tractor
Slinky's, yo-yo's, Barbie's, jacks, Spinning around on the merry-go-round until we were sick





I really do not remember too many adults interupting our play. Sometimes my grandparents were part of the fun, but even then they gave us kids a lot of freedom to take chances and learn from our mistakes as well as successes! I don't know if they realized what great learning they were facilitating for us but they sure did. They taught me life skills I still use today.


I don't think children today know what real imaginative, creative play is. Today it seems children are playing video games or acting out something they saw in a movie. We did not have so much to copy so we had to make up our own. I try to make time even today to have fun and play-at school with the children or with my family. We have game nights, go camping take the dogs to the dog park, and travel a little.