“My Connections to Play”
Growing up as a child, I was lucky enough to experience play
in two different scenarios, one with my grandmother in a typical African
village and also the other in a city. The play I experienced in my village is
totally different from the normal play in the city. During holidays in my village,
the older children taught the younger children how to dance in a folktale
dance, and also hide and seek around the rubber trees; it was so interesting especially
the dance that we look forward to every evening.
In the city, the most common play when I was growing up was
playing with dolls and kitchen utensils, and also acting mummy and daddy, and
sometimes we act the part of a very mean teacher, with the support and
understanding of my friends we were able to act these parts.
The play now and the play when I was growing up are similar,
acting roles and pretend play has been around for a very long time the only
difference in play now is the more modern play items.
My thought on the role of play throughout childhood and
adulthood is that, through play a child is capable to learn and develop both
socially and emotionally healthy, confident and friendly, has a good
relationship with peers, he or she is able to communicate well and this
transcends through adulthood.
Patience
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you received many wonderful experiences in your play as a child. The knowledge that was gained during that play is not something that can be taught from a book. The quotes you chose are very inspiring.
Hi Patience,
ReplyDeleteYour childhood play seems to be great opportunities of learning. It incorporated 2 different learning environments and methodologies of play activity. I am sure you were able to use an array of imagination using experiences from both settings. However, play back then and the play now is very different. The concept of what is to be expected of play is definitely the same BUT the actual output of that has great differences. This day and age is all about the digital world having children glued to either TV's, PC's, or any electronic device. Yes they do still have opportunity to learn a great deal if monitored right, yet; other developmental areas become obselete such as physical development maintaining healthy bones and muscles from constant movement in play.