My Connections to Play

Almost all creativity involves purposeful play.

Abraham Maslow
American psychologist
1908–1970

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.

Fred Rogers
American television personality
1928–2003

                Before I went to kindergarten, I remember two areas within which I used to play. One was in the backyard on a jungle gym, and one was in a garage converted to a play room. I remember being in the playroom listening to the record of the Wizard of Oz music. I would sing and dance along to that. I remember being alone in the playroom and outside with two of my older brothers. We would generally play with children not with our parents, but we could go over the steps in the corner of our backyard and down the street from there to my mom’s mom’s house. At that house, we would often play cards with my grandparents. This card playing would have been adult supported play. At the time I was four, I was one of seven children, so my mom was very busy. I had an older sister, however, who was ten when I was four. She was very intelligent and is a doctor now, so she was practically like an adult when I was four. She was probably teaching me even when I was four. Everyone called me her twin. She taught me how to read when I was five and a half, so that I was a fluent reader by the time I got to first grade. She taught me piano, knitting, and crochet when I was seven. Learning to read music so young helped me read the music of the other instruments I taught myself to play when I was ten and eleven. She and my dad were both interested in learning Spanish, so by the time I was seven, I was checking out children’s books to teach Spanish from the library and was learning Berlitz Spanish from one of my dad’s record sets. My dad liked to teach like my sister, but he was away as a merchant marine a lot when I was that young, but he had taught many of my siblings to read. My oldest sister was emulating my dad by teaching me things.

                The difference in play today comes from the prevalence of electronic media and the fear parents have of what will happen to their children outside the house. As a child, I played because that was what kids did. There were no alternatives like TV and computer.  We were also free to roam as children. For example, as a nine year old, I was free to walk a mile and a half to the library, free to walk a mile to school, and free to walk a half a mile to the high school to use the pool in the summer and the tennis, handball, and basketball courts any other time of year. We lived in southern California. Today, I would be terrified to allow even my fourteen year old daughter walk that far unsupervised. We also played baseball and Frisbee in the street and football in the front yard. I never took gymnastics, but I remember going to the circus and then pretending circus with my brother. We got books about gymnastics and acrobatics out of the library and learned many tricks with these books. We also would check books out about tennis and other sports to try to improve our games. My hope is that somehow children can have a childhood with as much freedom as mine and that everyone would just slow down to allow some time for children to play.

                When I was very young and played outside and sang and dance to records, I was not trying to do anything. I was just playing. As I got older, I realized that the sports and gymnastic tricks, and musical instruments were something I wanted to improve at. At this point, the learning and feeling of accomplishment was more important than the play, but this desire to learn was an outgrowth of my original desire to play.