My Connections to Play

     As a child, I remember always being outside...in the sun, the rain, and the snow.  Each season was filled with outdoor fun.  In the winter, we loved to sled ride, build forts and then have snowball fights, and even bike riding. (Someone in the neighborhood always got a new bike for Christmas and wanted to ride it, so we would all get out our bikes).  In the spring, we played in puddles and put on our swimsuits to play in the rain.  In the summer, we swam in the neighbor's pool, slept outside in tents, picked berries in the woods,went on hikes, went bike riding,  and played every game imaginable.  A favorite was stick ball which was played with half of a broomstick and a tennis ball.  No, we weren't that poor that we couldn't afford a baseball and bat...we found that if you hit a tennis ball with a broomstick, it would go flying farther than any baseball ever could. At night, we like to play flashlight tag. We were always climbing trees or in the woods. We loved to go camping on weekends especially if we were near a lake!  We were outside from morning til night, only going inside to eat. 
     Today, much of this play would be considered too dangerous.  Children are watched much more closely and for good reason.  The world is a different place today.  There is much more crime, more violence, less woods, and less time.  Children still have the urge to play outside, we just don't allow them many opportunities.  My own children are much like I was.  They love to be outdoors.  They build igloos in our yard every winter, play hockey in the street, ride bikes, dirt bikes, and quads in the woods, and build bonfires in our firepit.  They hunt, fish, camp, and generally have a love of nature.  I was fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home mom while my kids were young, so they had plenty of time to explore the outdoors. 
     My hope is that parents learn (or remember) how much fun playing outside can be and bring that enjoyment back to their own families. 

                           "The world is but a canvas to the imagaination." - - Henry David Thoreau

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


"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair" - - Khalil Gibran

My sister and I used to use the shadows of trees as our "houses".  We used leaves, twigs, or anything we could find to make the walls.  We played with our dolls in our houses for hours.  When the shadows moved with the sun, we just moved our twigs. 

 

We could often be found in the many trees in our yard.  They were great for climbing, sitting in, hiding from someone, or even to jump down and scare someone.

The undeveloped land behind our house had many bike trails.  We would ride for hours sometimes stopping to pick berries for a little snack. 

 

There were plenty of hills for us to climb.  There was one hill that had half of it missing.  We called it "hamburger hill" because it looked like someone took a giant bite out of it.  We dug holes in the hillside so that we could climb it.  (Similar to the rock climbing walls children climb today)

Most of my childhood memories are of being outdoors.  We didn't have to be chased out of the house by our mother because there wasn't much to do indoors.  We didn't have video games; there weren't many channels on the tv (cable came when I was in high school!); your room was where you were sent when you misbehaved (and there was nothing fun to do in there); and we had no cell phones or other gadgets.  The outdoors was our playground!  Too bad we feel the need to develop all of the vacant land because soon generations of children will never be able to  know the real "freedom" of the great outdoors.