My Connections to Play

Quotes that I feel summarize what play represented for me in my childhood....

The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.
Carl Jung

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw

Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold.
 Joseph Chilton Pearce

 Always jump in the puddles! Always skip alongside the flowers. The only fights worth fighting are the pillow and food varieties.
Terri Guillemets

Picture of my essential play items when I was younger....



People supported play when I was younger but encouraging us as children to get out and play. Times were not as dangerous then as they are now. We had a play house in the woods with lots of discoveries that we'd made. Our day wasn't complete if we'd not had time to get out and explore, play in the neighborhood and even playing "school" in our rooms, pretending to be the teacher, doctor or even playing the roles of our parents. The role of play in my childhood was highly encouraged and we were better thinkers, social people and learned how to get along with others because it was.

Play today is similar except for the fact that it's geared towards a goal instead of it just being total "free play." When I was in school, we did not have play time much at school, it was all in a setting where you were sitting down to concentrate on your school and then if you got done early, you could go play. It wasn't viewed as a time to learn. Today it is. There is actually time set apart for play which is considered learning time. The difference is that the adults get involved and challenge you during play by asking questions or expanding the imagination.  My hope is that this would continue and even increase for those children that younger so that they may have great experiences and learn at the same time. The role of play throughout my life was a learning experience but I think that it could have been enhanced if it had a little more of adult supervision. We had fun though! lol.  

Relationship Reflection

"Human Relationships, and the effects of relationships on relationships, are the building blocks of healthy development" (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000, p. 4)

We have friends and we have people we communicate regularly with. All of us have friends at work, in our neighborhoods, at our schools or in our church. We have less friends than casual acquaintances because close friends are harder to come across. We do find those close friends, people that we share with on a deeper level what’s going on in our lives. Most people don’t have a lot of close friends, but our close friends are very important to us. Some are closer than others.

Relationships can bring us great joy or deep distress. We can’t control what the other person in a relationship does, but we can control what we do. I find it very interesting that The Bible has a great deal to say about relationships with other people. God wants us to grow in our ability to relate to people the way He wants us to. Learning to grow so that our relationships can be everything that God intends them to be is the goal. And for this reason, relationships are important to me. 

 These are my sisters in which I have special relationships with and I love them dearly! I talk to them everyday and we all share very positive relationships with each other. These relationships were rocky at times, because of disagreements that we as sisters had as I am sure all sisters have had. I learned as we grew up, after we had become friends and just not sisters alone, it would take respect to maintain this relationship. Although we were all raised together, we were all so different. So to maintain a healthy relationship, we all had to learn how to respect each others opinions and differences and still love each other through it all.

Me and my boyfriend have a very positive relationship in that we can talk to each other about any and everything. This relationship is very dear to my heart and the great things is having a relationship with someone that you can accept and they accept you for who you are and you guys can be friends. Developing this relationship took work and it included some tough times but when you tough out things together, I believe that you grow and learn from it and develop a stronger love and respect for each other. To maintain  this relationship it takes communication, respect and love. 

Some special characteristics of these relationships that made them partnerships:

1. I've learned that you have to respect the other party in the relationship and not look at their differences as flaws

2. Communication is a key factor in EVERY type ofrelationship

3. Never give up, to fight for your relationship

My experiences with my personal relationships/partnerships directly effects my ability to be an effective early childhood professional in a way that allows me to identify the differences in a child's learning style and accept it instead of viewing it as a flaw and be able to deliver an effective approach to meeting their need. My relationship have taught me how to communicate effectively and be of assistance to the parents of the children in my class and to never give up on the learning ability of a child. It's taught me to never give up on something that us important to me and that would be the importance of educating children.

When I think of Child Development...

A quote that I connected with was....

 Martin Luther King Jr.:

" I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

This quote is close to my heart because my mother had four girls and I know that this is the way every parent feels. They want their children to be treated like the people that they are inside, not based on their outer appearance. This quote came from a great man who lived and died to see this image true in this nation and its not only his dream but the dream of parents all over the world, regardless of their color.