My Connections to Play

Play Quotes:
"It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for
learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connections between them"

By Leo F. Busca Glia

"Play is a major avenue for learning to manage anxiety. It gives the child a safe space
where she can experiment at will, suspending the rules and constraints of physical and
social reality. In play, the child becomes master rather than subject.... Play allows the
child to transcend passivity and to become the active doer of what happens around her".

By Alicia F. Lieberman

 

How play was supported by people during my childhood, was basically by teachers and extended family. I was an only child for 7 years and my parents spent most of the day working, by the time we all got home it was to late and we were all to tired to play. The memories of play that I have are playing in the yard of my house with  a little sand box that was left from the family that lived before us, as well as playing in the water table in preschool classroom. I loved my preschool teacher she always had something new for us to explore in the classroom. The water table was my favorite, the teacher would take it out to our school playground with different things to use with it. Sometimes we had soap, paint, measuring cups, or sea animals. My mom would need to send extra change of cloths almost everyday.I also remember playing outside with my cousins during the winter or summer vacations that I would get to visit them in Mexico. We would round in the streets, play tag, hide-and-seek or play ball. For me being able to be outside was and still is more exiting then being inside a classroom. Thanks to these opportunities of play I was able to obtain various developmental skills that would have been harder to gain without it.

As a preschool teacher for many years, I have been able to observe how children also enjoy as much as I did when I was a child form the outside activities. Many of these children also had parents that spent most of their day working, and by the time they got home it is to late to take their children out to play. Technology today has a strong influence on children, because other varieties of play have not been encouraged. Children need to be exposed to play experiences that will encourage their imagination, language and cognitive skills just to mention some, skills that cannot be develop with the use of many electronic devises. As educators our role is to provide those opportunities to explore while having fun. Toy and other props are helpful to enhance play, but encouraging imagination and creativity is even more.