My Connections To Play

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato

“Play is the beginning of knowledge.” ~ Anonymous

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning…They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play.” ~ Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood)
“Play is the highest form of research.” ~ Albert Einstein (scientist)


This assignment got me to really thinking back into my younger days. We were never bored and always had plenty to do. We didn't sit around like kids do today we were always finding something to get into. I had to think back to the many things I played with growing up. I am posting a few toys I remember playing with back in my younger days but we also made up many things to play using things just lying around in the yard. For example, we use to take pinestraw and we would rake it up in different sections and have a walk way. We would call this our pine straw house. We would have so much fun pretending we lived in this huge pinestraw manison. Below is some other toys I remember playing with.



We thought we were something viewing many images with the viewmaster. We would watch different cartoons through these lenses.

We don't see paper dolls much anymore. I remember playing with these and having to punch out the clothes and placing them on the dolls and folding them back to make them stay. Today children have the barbie dolls to take place of the paper dolls. Times have changed.

This was a popluar game we use to play.

Etch A Sketch as been around for many years and is still around today. I remember spending many hours trying to draw something on this things and I never could figure out how to get my lines to do right.

This was the doll I loved. You would pull her string in the back and she would talk. I still have this doll today and my little girl laughed when I showed her the type of dolls we use to play with. I love my Miss Beasley and I took her everywhere. She wore the cutest little glasses.

When we were coming up we found ways to keep ourselves occupied. We had toys to play with but we would go outside and find things in the yard and invent us a toy with it. As I stated earlier we would make pinestraw houses and these would be our manisions. I remember taking items from inside to outside and my cousins and I would set up a dentist office. We would use our minds and be creative. We didn't have to have toys to play with we could always invent something to do. We were never bored. I remember after a rainy day how we would go outside and play in the mud puddles and make mud pies. We would have so much fun doing this.

Play is so different today. Children have video games, Ipods, laptop computers, portable DVD players and so much more. They don't get outside and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine but instead they stay inside and don't do anything all day but use these new technology items we have today. Children really don't know what play is about in today's world. I sit and tell my children about the things we use to do growing up and they laugh and say I wouldn't be caught doing that. We had lots of fun when I was growing up.