My Connections to Play

QUOTES:

“Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.”

Joseph Chilton Pearce (author)

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us an enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable.

Without it, life just doesn’t taste good” 

Lucia Capocchione

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.”

 O. Fred Donaldson (martial arts master)

PICTURES OF ESSENTIAL PLAY ITEMS FOR MY YOUNGER SELF: 

 Doll Baby;   Tricycle;   Lego

 

In Nigeria, play was widely supported when I was younger.  My parents bought quite some play items for us (children – we were one or two years apart) to play with.  Items like Tricycle, Doll Baby, Lego, Ludo, Black Board and Chalk (although bought for learning, we also used it in teacher-student play).  Quite a lot were gained in play, like using Lego to build things - a house or an aero plane - promoted sense of imagination and confidence in us; using the tricycle as a taxi in taking people to market, collecting money and giving change was very good for our mental alertness and creativity which I still enjoy today.  Apart from getting the items for us, my parents, especially my father, trained us on the usage and still participated in some of the plays.  There were early childhood centers then also, but we had more play than learning that it was generally believed that we just leave home to play.

I feel play today is different from the play in which I engaged in as a child because in the centers then we hardly touched any writing material unlike today that children are now taught to hold and use writing materials from early childhood class. We were able to play with one another then and this helped us mentally, physically and also to know more about others around us, but today young children are saddled with writing and learning that there is little or no rapport among the children in the class.  Then, parents are able to get acquainted with each other through their children’s play pal but today, parents urge their children to learn and write faster than the other child that hostility is easily spreading across board.  My hope for younger ones today with regard to play is that the parents, teachers and the community will once again see the importance of play in lives of these children and embrace it as it used to be.