My Connection to Play

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation” Plato, Greek philosopher

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.” Joseph Chilton Pearce

“Play has been man’s most useful preoccupation.” Frank Caplan

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.” Leo F. Buscaglia

As a child, my family encouraged me a lot to play and especially outdoors. My dad used to take me with my sister and my two brothers to the beach. At the beach, I used to swim and play with sand.

Playing house with my sister was one of my favorite activities when I was a child. We would pretend to be a a married couple, where I was the woman and my sister was the husband, I pretended cleaning the house and cooking up dinners. I used also to like to play with dolls and to play school. I would set up all the chairs, and put my stuffed animals and dolls in the chairs, then take out a chalk board, chalk, and eraser, and write things on the board pretending teaching in the front of the classroom. I also pretended reading stories to students.

My toys consisted of blocks, puzzles, chalk board, and some dolls. I didn’t have any electronic toys or video games. I loved playing outdoors even during the cold winter months. I would wear very warm clothes and a snowsuit and spend several hours outdoors building snowmen and playing with snow with my sister and my friends.

Play has changed so much since I was a child. Now children still like to run free and play. They still love to swing, to play house, play tag, and to ride bikes. They may still enjoy the same activities but video games, computers and televisions have all played a massive role in changing how children play. Children prefer to spend their free time in front of a television or playing computer games more than playing outdoors or interacting with other friends. 

Creative play is the most important play for childre. It is mostly expressed when children engage in role playing and imaginative play, but many parents and teachers misunderstand and underestimate the value of play in the lives of children, forgetting that play fosters physical, mental, and social development. Play also helps children express and cope with their feelings.

Our goal as teachers and parents is to stimulate play and encourage children's satisfaction in playing with each other or by themselves. they should also pay attention to play, plan for it, encourage it, and learnhow to extend children's play through our comments and questions, and try to avoid toys and activities that spell everything out for children and leave nothing to the imagination.