My Connections with Play

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” Kay Redfield Jamison (professor of psychiatry)


I really likes this quote due to it's true nature.  So many adults look at play as an "extra" time, especially as children start to get past the toddler years. As I have been learning more and more on the topic of play, I see that it is an essential part of development for every child.  Playing with my dolls or playing school contributed to the person I am today.


“Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs.” ~ James L. Hymes Jr. (child development specialist, author)


Children often have limits set upon them.  Play is a time when children are free to make mistakes and try again without any pressure.  Great thinkers can't be afraid to try something again and again and to think differently.  As Ms. Frizzle always says, "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!" When I was young, I played with Barbies non-stop!  However, I loved to do their hair and I taught myself how to French braid, German braid, fishbone and rollerset my Barbies hair.  I experimented on dying their hair by leaving my Crayola markers in a Dixie cup of water and then setting my doll's head in the cup overnight. No one asked me to do this or set expectations upon me.  This was trial and error, but at my own pace and my own expectations.


Essential Play Items for my Younger Self:

My first play item I would have had in the woods with me would have been my Barbie doll.  I was a Barbie fanatic and usually carried a case of Barbies and clothes wherever I went.  I could see myself in the woods, in a quiet spot, playing all by myself (I actually did not enjoy others playing Barbies with me.  I preferred to act out roles between the dolls by myself.)

I am sure I would have also carted with me, my tape player and my a Disney book on tape or two.  Although this was not physical play, I would get lost in the stories and listen to them over and over again.  I contribute this to my creativity and love for reading today.  In fact, I had the record of It's a Small World.  I always said I would go to Disneyland and see it someday.  This past summer I got that opportunity.  I was like a child again...just starry-eyed as I rode through that ride.  I remembered so many details from my book and record.  This piece of "play" has to be important to have been held in my heart for so long.

My next item would have brought into the woods with me would have been my box of Crayola 64 crayons.  I LOVED my crayons.  I colored-a lot.  Not only did I color, but i was fascinated with the colors themselves.  I would organize them by color and hue. to this day, I am very color-oriented and my favorite art project ever was when I made a color wheel.


I spent my early childhood years growing up in a single parent home.  However, my mother encouraged play in the best ways.  I can remember being allowed to play and be silly all the time.  My mom was an avid reader, so she would read and sit on the couch and I would usually play in the living room to be near her.  I was able to play without criticism and was allowed to play the way I wanted.  Whether it was building an entire Barbie village out of the living room or arranging crayons across the floor, my mom didn't interrupt and never seemed to mind. 


I see play as being slightly different now than it was when I was a child. We didn't have all of the electronics that children have today.  Back then, to me, a Speak and Spell was high tech!  I feel that I had to use my imagination a lot.  I was not allowed to sit around the house for hours on end watching tv.  out the door I would go and my mom would lock the screen door behind me.  I'm glad she did.  It made me make a game to entertain myself for hours out of a bucket and a jump rope. I became an Olympic gymnast on my swing set and I was set and determined to see how deep of a whole I could dig in my stone driveway with my plastic shovel and pail.


Too often, I notice that I have to really dig to get imagination out of my children at school.  They spend so much time on video games and non-creative play that they seem lost at the idea of coming up with a new idea.  I have a picture of Sponge Bob up in my room to encourage my students to "Use your imagination", as he would say.  I hope for the children of today, that imagination is not an endangered species.