My Connections to Play

By Lisa Martin

                                                                                       

“Play is our brain's favorite way of learning.”              

                                                         Diane Ackerman

“It is a happy talent to know how to play.”

                                                  Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A child loves his play, not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard.”

                                                     Dr. Benjamin Spock



MUD PIE

I cannot begin to tell you how important play was in my childhood. It was a time when we could be free, when the adults weren’t telling you what to do or watching your every move. My grandmother would facilitate our backyard play by giving us old muffin and pie pans in which to make our mud pies. Looking back I cannot believe I used to enjoy digging up dirt; today I have no desire to garden or do anything that involves putting my hands in mud. I guess in childhood we are more uninhibited and rather fearless.

  

I remember my sisters and I would dress up and play house with our dolls pretending our husbands were at work and we were shopping with our babies. Sometimes, we would pretend the baby was sick or we were having a big party. As we got older we traded our baby dolls for Barbie dolls.        

 

We would often take our Barbie Dream House into the front yard and set it up on the cellar door, and all of our friends would come to the yard with their dolls and we would play all day. We would pretend to be teachers, lawyers, doctors, astronauts, you name it we wanted to be it and through our Barbie dolls we were if only for a few hours. We were happy children who laughed and smiled a lot. Today I know that “children who engage in make believe play are more joyful, and smile and laugh more often than those who seem at odds with themselves” (Almon, 2002, p. 4). 

 As I got older into the world of double digits I definitely preferred more physical play. Perhaps, one of the most fun things for me was jumping rope. I was really good at it, and to this day if I see a group of girls playing Double Dutch I always ask for a turn. Unfortunately, I hardly ever see little girls jumping rope anymore, even when I go back to Brooklyn. I totally see why our children are overweight, they do not run, jump, climb or play outdoors nearly as much as we did. I grew up in a time when you went outside and did not come back in the house until the streetlight came on.  

I wish children today knew the joys of stoop ball and stick ball; of double-dutch competitions with their girlfriends – and perhaps a boy or two. The joy of riding  your bikes around the neighborhood together; and in my case, having your uncle teach you to ride on Christmas morning on a playground covered by sheet of ice. Learning to ride my new princess bike on that freezing winter morning was one of the most memorable days of my childhood.

I understand the world is not quite the same as when I was a child, but I feel sorry for children who do not get to roam their neighborhoods and explore their communities, and simply be a child – playing made up games and having fun. Even as teenagers we played touch football and Ring Olivio on our Brooklyn street. To this day, I enjoy my play. I work hard, and nothing makes me feel more relaxed than a game night with friends, or getting out my Super Soaker on a hot summer night for a good water fight with my neighbor’s sons and their friend. I realize that it is my spirit of play that has survived childhood and carried well into middle-age that is responsible for my competitive nature and the self-confidence that makes me successful in the workplace. 

 

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved                from http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW43almon.pdf