My Connections to Play

Quotes that represent my childhood:

Life is a game, play it. –Mother Teresa

My sister and I played school, store, restaurant, bank… we were literally playing life and we loved it!

Every child is an artist. –Pablo Picasso

I always loved coloring, painting and drawing as a child.  I even earned my Bachelor’s degree in Art and taught art classes to children. 

My essential play items:

Crayons- I loved coloring.  I found some of my old books in the garage and noticed that I used to sign my masterpieces.

Little dishes from Mexico-  I still have them. Some were my mothers that she passed on and some were gifts from relatives.  My sister and I would use these in our restaurant. 

My parents always supported play in my childhood.  They let my sister and I use the living room as our restaurant and were even our best customers.  At my grandma’s house they always made sure to sweep under the dining room table since my sister and I made it into our own little home.  I played with the neighborhood kids once and a while but my favorite thing to do would be to play with my cousins.  We would build forts, play hide and seek even at night, play like we were traveling in the van and play baseball with no bat but an empty plastic juice bottle.  We definitely used our imaginations. 

I feel today is very different.  Technology has made such an impact on child’s play.  Instead of building with blocks they can build with their finger on a screen.  Instead of playing dress up they can tap clothes onto a doll on the screen.  Instead of playing with a Spiderman action figure they can make a digital Spiderman shoot webs and swing through the city.  While it is still hands on in some sense the play space range has really been reduced to sitting or lying down.  The opportunity to use the imagination and real physical objects has been taken away as well.  I hope this can change both in the home and at school.  Children need that freedom to learn by exploring and having fun.

Play has been a big part of my life.  I had a happy childhood where some of my best memories are of play.   I played with everyone even my older cousins, aunts and uncles would amuse me.  They taught me how to play marbles, bingo and different card games.  I still enjoy playing those games and others.  I recently learned how to play a different game of dominoes and Yahtzee. 

I have kept in mind the theory of learning through play and use it to work with children who have learning disabilities at work.  I also help children who don’t know how to jump rope or skip at recess.  I feel like those are things every child should know how to do.