“My Connections to Play”
Growing up I had three siblings to play with as well as tones
of neighborhood kids to play with. I
remember my summers spent outside on swing sets, blow up pools, bike
rides that took us on adventures all over, sandboxes, sprinklers, and of course
fort making. After dinner we would go
out and play games of ghost in the graveyard or bloody Mary! These games would include a wide age range of
kids and would include anywhere up to 20 kids.
My aunt gave me her beloved Schwinn bike and I put many more miles on it.
Our adventures would take us through the
woods and down to the river or over to a friend’s house to play. On days that we could not be outside to play I
loved to play with my dolls. My grandma
would make clothing and bedding for my dolls.
Dolls of all kinds were my favorite toy as a child. Play has always been enjoyable for me! I still enjoy playing today! Today I enjoy playing and watching my own
children play. I enjoy when we get the
opportunity to play and ride bikes as a family.
Play has changed in
some ways. When I grew up we had a
neighborhood community, all the backyards were open, and we ran through them all
as if they were our own. If you wanted,
someone to play with you just went outside and found someone or went to the neighbor’s
door and rang the bell. It seems these
days many people have fences or are not home to play. If you want a friend to play with you have to
call and set up a play date! In addition, there is way more entertaining things
on TV and video games to suck you in to screen time.
In some ways, play
is the same. I love to watch kids get swept
up in their imagination and pretend play.
I wish for kids today that they had more time to play that their time
was not so scheduled either at home or in school. I also wish that there were not so many
concerns for children to play outside.
These days children cannot go out and play for hours without their
parents seeing them. There are too many
concerns about strangers to allow children the opportunity to wander to far
from home without an adult.
Amy, I think we were channeling. I was thinking and writing almost the same thing as you for the last two paragraphs! I'll bet that many of us are. I also wish that kids today had much more play time than they do. I remember at school we looked forward to our TWO recesses and to P.E. everyday. Kids today are lucky to get ONE 15 minute recess and ONE day a week for P.E.
ReplyDeleteAmy,
ReplyDeleteI had similar experiences in my neighborhood while growing up. We played with all the kids in the neighborhood and went from house to house. I recall that many of the moms in the neighborhood stayed at home or the neighbor only baby-sat the kids in the neighborhood. Times have changed now. We can drive through our neighborhood any time during the weekend, and it looks like a ghost town.
Thank you for sharing.
Tanya