“Play is the highest form of research.” ~ Albert Einstein (scientist)
“Play is…more than just fun. Plenty of play in childhood makes for happy, smart adults – and keeping it up can make us smarter at any age.” Stuart Brown (author of The Neuroscience of Play)
As a young child, I truly believe that aside from my father's direct teaching, my mother's undying passion for reading with us, eating, and sleeping I spent every other waking moment engaged in some form of play. We lived next to an empty lot on a sparsely developed dead-end road which backed up to a steep ravine with creek at the bottom. There were only three other young families on the street and all of those children become my nearest and dearest friends. We explored from sunrise until dinner, and never found ourselves bored. Our bicycles were our mode of transportation and it seemed that we were on-the-go as long as the weather permitted.
Our swingset was a castle, a pirate ship, a roller coaster...the wind used to try to keep us from ever reaching our destinations...we lived, like Alice, in Wonderland where the flowers and grasses were taller than us...we held grand tea parties along the banks of a "mighty river"...the trees we climbed served as locked towers, fire poles, and look-outs. We knew the landscape like the backs of our hands, but every day was a new adventure.
My parents, and the parents of my friends, seemed to allow us unlimited play time. While I am sure that they knew basically where we were, they never intervened. We were free to make our own rules, devise our own games, and handle our own interpersonal conflicts. In addition to this free play time, my parents loved to travel, hike, and visit interesting places. They seemed to enjoy a new expedition just as much as we did. My mother had a "teeny tiny town" that she loved to look at as we traveled East to the ocean, where she used to daydream about living. My father had always dreamed of flying a plane, so swings and bicycles were often made into airplanes. He also loved to swing on vines in the forest and try to pretend we were lost to see if we could find our way out of the woods. My grandmother loved to take us on berry-picking walks where she would teach us about edible plants, tell stories, and pretend that were Little Red Riding Hood. The elderly neighbors on our street supported our wild imaginations by buying our homemade crafts and letting us play among their lawn ornaments.
Play for young children today is drastically different in many places. Society, expectations, and the environment have changed. There are fewer "green" spaces to explore, less "unscheduled" time, and more obligations to academic pursuits. As most children find their free time filled with structured activities, this is where children seem to congregate and interact. There are play groups, story times, sports and classes. My hope for the future is that adults will look back to their pasts and remember the sheer joy in uninhibited free play. Even if the environment has to be a little more controlled, it would be incredible for play dates to turn in to "free play dates" and structured activities would involve more interaction and less "do what I do".
Personally, I look forward to the time when the weather gets warmer, schedules relax some, and children can once again venture outside. While there is still a great deal of supervision necessary in today's world, children can begin to more openly explore the world around them when they are not confined by the intensity of everyday life. Even they can appreciate the calm that comes from a relaxed adult as they join in a game of Tag or become a guest at an outdoor tea party. As adults, one of the greatest gifts we can give our children is a degree of freedom and the security that comes when they know we value their interests and their "work".
