My Connections to Play

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.

Fred Rogers

You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play.

Erik Erikson

When I was growing up I was always allowed to go play outside with my friends and cousins. We had a park that was right behind the first house I remember living in. My mom would allow me and my cousins to go play there for what seemed like hours. We would run, play, swing and slide to our hearts content. We would make friends with other children from the neighborhood and make up games while we were out there. My most fond memories of my neighbors and cousins all have to do with us playing. When we get together as adults most of the stories that we tell have to do with us and some sort of play.

When I compare children of today and of the past I do not see a lot of children playing outside anymore. When I was younger your friends would come over everyday to ask if you could play or you would go over to their house to see if they could come out and play. If I do see children playing outside they are not playing with each other. They may be playing with some electronic toy that does not allow for others to join in or they are not not as social as we used to be as children. My hope for my children and other children growing up in these times are that they begin to be taught the importance of playing with others and are encouraged to play with others.

The role that play has played in my life is that it helped me to develop socially via making friends, physically while playing at the park, playing tag, hopscotch and other games that required gross and fine motor skills and it also helped me develop intellectually as I gained problem solving skills via games such as hide and seek, connect four, Battleship, checkers, Life and Monopoly. The skills that I learned during those times are skills that I had to use through middle childhood, my teenage years up through adulthood. I still enjoy playing to this day and do it every chance I get.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are important to me because they help keep me healthy mentally and physically. With all of the stressors that we face on a day to day basis it is very important to me to have someone that I can go to when I am feeling the pressures of day to day life.

                The two most important relationships/partnerships that I am in now are with my husband and my mother. My husband and I have a very special relationship that we also both see as a partnership. We both work together to make sure that our relationship works. Where I am weak he is strong and vise versa. We know and understand that we must work together in order to be parents to our children and keep our household running.

                My relationship with my mother is also very important to me because my mother is my motivator. Having her in my life and now living in my home, she gives me the motivation to continue my education and the encouragement I need when I feel I am too tired to read one more article or log on one more time. I watched my mother go to school to get her degrees during my childhood and have an even deeper respect for her now that I am also a mother and perusing this degree in early childhood studies.

                If I did not have these two relationships or people in my life I do not think I would be sitting here typing these words. Some the challenges to developing and keeping relationships are that sometimes we get so involved in ourselves that we have to remember that just as these people are pouring into us we must also take the time to support and motivate them as they also need the same things that they are pouring into us.

                            As an early childhood professional I know that I must build and strengthen relationships with the children, families and communities that I work with in order to ensure the success of my programs.