Childhood Connections to Play

 “The activities that are the easiest, cheapest, and most fun to do – such as singing, playing games, reading, storytelling, and just talking and listening – are also the best for child development.” – Jerome Singer (professor, Yale University)

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul.” – Friedrich Froebel (founder of the concept of kindergarten)

     My parents always encouraged us to play outside, if the sun was shining, there was no need to be sitting inside. I had seven brothers and sister so material things were far in between. Whatever we got for Christmas and birthdays we took care of it because we understood that it would be a long time before we saw any news toys. We had our imagination, a jump rope, metal skates that needed a key, jumping jakes and lots of  balls.  We would go outside and just invent games and have fun.

    In preschool I remember blocks wooden ones and big cardboard blocks, red, blue, yellow and green. We would use our imaginations to build houses, schools and vehicles. We had jump ropes, hula hoops, hop scotch and swings. The thing I remembered most was our teacher hope scotching with us.    

     Play is very different from when I was younger, children today spend large amounts of time in front of screens – television, video, and computer. TV Turn-off Network cites figures from the Nielson Media report of 2000 which indicate that children from 2 to 17 spend on average 19 hours and 40 minutes per week (or nearly three hours per day) watching television. Combining videos and computers, children spend a total of nearly five hours per day in front of screens.  In addition, many children are profoundly influenced by the often violent, fast paced and sexual content of television, films and computer games.  

     Overall I've learned a lot through play, play it taught me how to think for myself,  and how share. I was allowed the time to play by both my parents and teachers which helped with my development. Today I make sure to give the children plenty of time for creative play and free-choice interest area play. I love seeing children outside playing, inventing games, using their imaginations, and being creative.  

Reference:

Article: Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved from http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf

Building Relationships

          Hello everyone. I am going to discuss my relationship with the four most important people in my life.


 First off  I would like to introduce and discuss my relationship with my husband. We have know each other for 31 years, been together for 27 and married for 25 years. he has always been there for me even through the roughest challenges in our marriage. He always assured me that things would get better for us if we just hanged in there and it did. I like to think of  him as my soul-mate, the one that God designed especially for me. He is a man among men and I don't ever see my life without him.

Next is my daughter Genesis, she is our first born child and our new beginning as a family. When Genesis was 5 years old, she told my best friend that she heard me and her daddy talking while she was in my tummy and she heard me singing. And til this day, Genesis loves music. She is now 22 years old, married, in the Army Reserves and are about to start her own family. Genesis and I are very close, we share our love of baking together and plan to open a cupcake shop together.

Next is Christina, when Chrissie was young she loved building things, every Christmas we made sure to include big logos, she would set for hours building, tearing down and building again. One day when we lived in Germany, I went to pick her up for Kindergarten and she was crying. Her teacher told me that she was upset because she didn't get to play. She said that Chrissie took out all the blocks that she wanted to play with, set them up in a particular way and by the time she was ready to play, it was time to clean up. And she said "but I didn't get to play yet" she is now 21 yrs old, a sophomore at Morgan State Univ. studying to be an Architect. Chrissie and I share a special bond, I wrote a children' book and she did the illustration and are now designing my dream home.

Then there my third child, Christopher. As a child Chris always enjoyed playing with Army men and playing games like Risk. He was diagnosed with Dyslexia at age 8, but he never let that stop him, he is a genius when comes to computers and computer programming.  He is a teenager now and he makes mods for strategic games. He is in the Military academy and plans to join the Army as an ITT man. Chris I must say is a mama's boy, he is always checking on me to make sure that I am okay. 

My family is my inspiration and gives me the drive to succeed. When I ran my own in home Family Childcare they all took part in making the success that it was in the community. My family means everything to me. I couldn't survive without them.