My Connections to Play

My Connections to Play

 

As a child, I had a best friend that lived next to me, her name was Porscha.  We did pretty much everything together.  If we were going on an adventure, we would usually play in the grassy area behind her house and her grandmother’s house, which happened to be next door to her (very convenient).  There were bushes and large trees all around our houses. 

Our adventure would probably be a mission to get some extra cookies, which we were clearly entitled to, or to scare my little brother.  We would be sneaking from house to house.  In and out, past my father who was mowing the lawns or fixing up the cars.  The great thing about this was that our parents were always pretending that they did not see us or would pretend they were interrupting our mission by moving the objects that we were trying to get.  Most of the time, we did not have many props.  I do recall using some binoculars on occasion or using my dad’s tools that were broken as weapons.  These activities would fill up our summer weekends.  You can just imagine how we smelled and what our clothes looked like after hours of rolling in the grass trying to be “sneaky”.

 

When we could not go outside, we would play school.  This was interesting because we did not go to the same schools as young children.  She went to public school and I went to a private school.  We got to act out the bad kid or the mean girl and my younger brother would just be there to laugh and say what we told him to say. 

“Go and play. Run around. Build something. Break something. Climb a tree. Get dirty. Get in some trouble. Have some fun.”
― Brom, The Child Thief

Knowing what I know now about play and young children, I would say I learned a lot from my older best friend. Porscha was only a year older but whatever she was learning or trying to do, I wanted to do it as well.   The day she learned how to ride her bike is the day I learned.  She taught me how to play school before I was in school.  This influence was also on my younger brother who was never far behind us.  As soon as he could walk, he was following Porscha and me around my house and outside. 

I have seen evidence that play is what it was twenty years ago.  There are parents that know the importance of play and interacting with children on the block.  Unfortunately, the world is not as safe as it once was.  If I was a mother, I would never let my child go outside without supervision or in my sight.  I hardly ever see the child that live around me outside in the summer or spring.  I hope that parents begin to realize again the importance of engaging with their child and playing with them.  In the words of Plato...

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”  -Plato