My Connectin to Play

My Favorite Toys

I spent hours playing in trees. It amazed me all the place I could go while sitting in its branches.

Blocks were my favorite indoor toy (sometimes outside too). I could build any place I wanted and escape into that world for hours.

The stream by my home was the best. I could be anything from an explorer traveling along its banks, to an ice skater in the winter, to a scientist examining all the pond life I could find.

My parents were my biggest support system for play, one a kindergarten teacher the other an art teacher. Creativity was huge to them and still is. We were not allowed to watch much television so it left time for nothing but imagination. I lived in a rural setting so the rule was, we could play as far into the fields as we wanted as long as we could still see the top bricks of the chimney of our home. The role of play for me, looking back, was a way to escape the world. It calmed me, it excited me, it made me think I could be or do anything I put my mind to.

Play today is not the same as what I experienced growing up. Children do not (or cannot due to safety) play outside all day long, lost in the pretend, using materials of the world. I find I need to teach my students how to play when they come to my Head Start classroom. I also find that some of the teachers are uncomfortable when the children take items from one center to another to aid to their creativity. Technology is part of today’s world but I want creativity back in a child’s life. I want children to take a stick and make a whole world of play with it.

Play I lived as a child is still a big part of who I am today. I tend to think outside of the box and see the glass half full. Not only is the glass half full, but it is not a glass at all, it is actually a pitcher. I am a big advocate for play in the classroom and creativity is its base.  Working with inner city and immigrant children who may seem destined to what is dealt them need to learn creative ways to look outside of where they are to what truly can be.