My Connection to Play

  

A day at the beach was the best thing ever. Hours of playing in the sand and salty beach water. Trying to catch seashells but waves knock you down and you have to get up and try again. My sister and I pretending to be mermaids because we grew up on all things Disney. Some of the best days of my life were playing as a child.

My sister and I had the best imaginations ever, even though we had a good number of toys we were just creative. We played with the big boxes our toys came in instead of the toys. We would go outside with old aluminum pans and make mud pies for our mom. We would bang on the washing machine as if it were drums and sing creating our own band. We used sheets and pillows and built forts with our dad. Sometimes toys weren’t needed to play just creativity. 

I try to implement the same kind of creativity with the children I work with by providing less at times to see what children will do. Sometimes I feel this takes away from the overwhelming choices of which toy should I play with. I encourage children to be creative like my parents did with my sister and me. Five essentials to play are allow children to make their own choices, children are intrinsically motivated, children become immersed in the moment, play is spontaneous not scripted, and play is enjoyable (NAEYC, 2009).

References

Nell, M. & Drew, W. (2009). Five Essentials to Meaningful Play. Retrieved from https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/five-essentials-meaningful-play