My Connections to Play

“Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play.”

Henri Matisse
French painter
1869–1954

“Play, while it cannot change the external realities of children’s lives, can be a vehicle for children to explore and enjoy their differences and similarities and to create, even for a brief time, a more just world where everyone is an equal and valued participant.”

Patricia G. Ramsey
Contemporary American educational psychologist

When I was younger my parents supported me a great deal when I had my play time. My mother would sit at the kitchen table and allow me to cook special meals for her as if I was at a restaurant. My famous dish was soup, which as nothing more than dish water that I poured in small bowls with a plastic spoon. I remember when my dad would come home after working offshore for two weeks at a time and he would sit and play with me for a few hours. We would make all kinds of things out of play-dough and often used my mother’s cookie cutters to make different shapes. It was a way for us to bond and spend quality father and daughter time and I truly loved it. I used to love to play with my magic troll dolls and pretend that they were a huge family in a vacation house in Florida. I would use the tub as my ocean, popsicle sticks as surfs and I would imagine that they were surfing on the waves in the ocean. Play was extremely important to me growing up because it allowed me to express my imagination without and boundaries. My parents have always stated that I was creative and full of life and I am glad they allowed me to express that.

As a child I remember everyone supporting childhood play. In elementary school my kindergarten teacher would allow us to dress in costumes and when often played games to learn the letters of the alphabet and numbers. She incorporated play into our learning time which I feel is very important for young children. In a way I believe that play is similar in some ways that I remember when growing up. Teachers are still engaged in learning and the understand play is needed in order to enhance a child’s learning ability. For example, some teachers have attached songs to help students remember their time tables or help them remember a part of history. I remember my teacher telling us “Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in the year 1492”. By her rhyming blue and 2 it helped me remember the year he discovered the “New World”. My hope for the future is for the states to give teachers some breathing room when it comes to standards, and allow their love for teaching and a child’s love for learning to shine through.