Connections to Play

 I believe that play is something that helps us to learn about who we are and how we are going to fit in to this crazy, fast paced world around me. My father was never much of a book learner. In fact, he dropped out of school in the 8th grade. He got his GED in his late teens and has never picked up a book in most of my life. He did however stress learning when my brother and I were small. He provided us with every opportunity to learn through play and exploration because he felt that we would never learn about ourselves from a book or sitting in front of a television. We had to get out and experience life so we could learn about the world around us. He believed that we would never learn if we didn't experience or feel. Even now, he takes my children outside and is so grateful that I have adopted his same philosophy on educating children. I also believe that kids need to get out and play. All of my friends laugh at me because I am always buying my children costumes for dressing up and dramatic play instead of video games and tablets. My son is the only 4 year old in his class who does not have a tablet. He also has the largest vocabulary and is the most comfortable when it comes time to act out a story or even speak in a classroom. Most of the other children cannot put a sentence together unless it involves describing something on a computer screen or piece of paper. Some fun things that I used to play with were dress up toys and blocks. I loved to create things and pretend like I was someone else living somewhere else and I try to help my children to do the same thing.