When children pretend, they’re using their imaginations to move beyond the bounds of reality. A stick can be a magic wand. A sock can be a puppet. A small child can be a superhero.
Fred Rogers American children's television host
Children have always learned and created places for themselves through play.
Donna R. Barnes
Contemporary American psychologist
Essential Play Items
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| Jacks were an absolute MUST have!!! |
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| We played UNO for hours! |
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| I loved playing with Barbie dolls!! |
Play Today vs. Play of Yesterday
I really had fun finding pictures of some of the things that brought so much fun to my childhood experience. I can remember having jacks tournaments with my girlfriends in my neighborhood. I was one of the younger girls and I couldn't play jacks right away so I learned and really became good at it. I don't have a picture of this but I think my absolute favorite game was Hide-A-Go-Seek!!! Oh, my goodness!! We would play that game for what seemed like hours. We always played outside and that is something that I think is missing from play experiences today. I think parents in the 70's and 80's encouraged children to play outside. I don't remember there being a large discussions about childhood obesity because kids really did get exercise by playing outside. In our neighborhood we had relay races, played kick ball, volley ball and even put on plays.Today I think technology has become a big part of the play of our children. In some ways I think this is a blessing and a curse. Children use their fingers to play games but they've stopped using their imaginations. I hardly see children playing outside the way that I did as a child. Recently in a discussion post I mentioned how I had to make my own children go out in play. Today children use computers and play on pocket sized game systems and they think and the idea of going outside is "boring".When I think about play today vs. play of yesterday, I really think that as I child there was more social interaction than what you might see today. We learned very early how to make teams and play games independently. I think we see less of this type of play now.
Hi Thesha,
ReplyDeleteI agree that technology has impacted how children play and the lack of it. I saw it with my 8 year old granddaughter and 10 year old grandson. I observed them over the holiday and it was unsettling to see the enormous amount of time spent playing computer games. I finally got them outdoors, but it was obvious that they would prefer playing computer games than playing outdoors.
I too can remember playing the games you mentioned. I loved being outside, in fact the majority of my childhood I spent outside. It is so sad that today children really do prefer being inside with high tech computers, ipods, phones,t.v.s and even games. Thanks for sharing your childhood games they were the best, I loved playing jacks thanks for reminding me of that.
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