My Connections to Play

 

 

 
Here are some really awesome quotes about play:

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




"I dream of a day when we say, "Today everyone played so hard!"" Lisa Murphy, the Ooey Gooey Lady

"If animals play, this is because play is useful in the struggle for survival; because play practices and so perfects the skills needed in adult life."  Susanna Miller, EdD

Most of the adults in my life encouraged me to be outside and to be active.  My parents let me play t-ball, join girl scouts, powder puff football.  I loved playing dodge ball and red rover and being outside.  I remember my Barbie townhouse that was 3 stories high with an elevator and spent many hours playing with it.  My favorite thing on the playground was this HUGE (it was back then anyway) tractor tire.  It laid on the ground and when we played hide and seek, we fought over who would hide in it - the first placed "it" would look (hahaha).  My parents always took us camping and we stayed on our bikes riding everywhere and exploring everything.  During middle and high school, I was always at girl scout camp for 3-4 weeks as a camper, then as a counselor.  During my junior year, I became a lifeguard and started teaching swimming lessons.  I could never have done these things without the support and permission of my parents and the other adults who worked with these activities.

I feel that play today has changed dramatically from the time I was young.  The technology was not available to watch television, movies, and play video games on phones, I-pads, Kindles,  etc.  We were able to be outside from daylight to dark without fear of predators.  We also knew if we did anything we should not be doing, our parents would find out by other adults.  So we actually learned self-governance to keep us from getting into trouble (or learned to be really sneaky if we wanted to go to that much trouble).  Children today have way too many things to keep them sedentary.  Also, parents are content to keep them close for a number of reasons:  wary of predators, too busy to do things with them, too lazy to do things, etc. 

Parents and other caring adults have to make play important for the whole family.  Being active and playing is part of a healthy lifestyle.  Adults must realize the importance of play and physical activity for the healthy development of their children and future generations.