My Connections to Play

"There's nothing like a day in the backyard to make a really nasty bathtub ring"

Author: Dee Ann Stewart from "What Spock Forgot"

"Grandparents and grandchildren are God's gift to each other."

Author: Unknown

 

 

 

 

 

I spent many hours, days, weeks, months, and years on my bike.  Trips to the corner store, down to neighbors and just riding up and down the big hill.  It didn't matter the color of the bike nor the brand.

 

 

When I wasn't on my bike I was working on our 'fort', made of scrap wood, decorated with homemade curtains and stump benches.  It was a place that we imagined as our second home.  So much creativity went in to that one-of-a-kind space that the memories are stored forever.

 

*  My play was supported by my parents, both encouraging me to 'be outside' and the neighbors who knocked on my door each day.

*  My parents set simple guidelines that encouraged my creativity in play.  They didn't come up with my plans, they didn't monitor every move I made, nor did they fill all of my time with extra curricular activities. 

*  Living in a community where all of the families seemed to grasp the same concept that my own parents did, one that allowed children to be children.  To be dirty, out after dark, and building something meant it was a good day in the neighborhood.

 

 

 

Play today looks so much different, the culture has changed.  Is it better or worse?  I'm not sure that it's that simple.  Lets look at some realities: more parents work(both), technology has skyrocketed, organized activities have increased, etc.  Just these few named differences can account for our disconnected and hectic lives.  Free time seems to be reduced at all turns, whether school or home.  In our schools, specials as they are called, are the first to go.  There seemed to be a time when 'specials' where a part of the bigger picture.  Now we need to have a  movement, such as, the fight against obesity to teach physical activity. 

 

Some of my fondest memories are the many hours that I spent in the woods behind my house, on the farm at my grandmas, and at the neighbors field with a mit in my hand.  All of these moments created, by Heather......