"My Connections to Play"

"Play is our brain's favorite way of learning."
Diane Ackerman, Contemporary American author

"Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning."

Fred Rogers, American television personality, 1928–2003

Play was supported tremendously in my childhood.  During my entire childhood, I was fortunate enough to have a play room.  This was a separate room, which was located down the hall from my bedroom.  I can remember spending numerous hours just playing! I had a dramatic play kitchen area, China tea set, pots, pretend food, my fabulous wonder horse (it made all the sounds of a horse, trotting, galloping, everything!), my milking jersey cow, easy bake oven, my Barbies, my Baby Alive, Baby Magic, Walking Doll, my Barbie head, puzzles and many more.  My friends would come over and play in the play room with me, as well.  My parents allowed me to enjoy my childhood and provided me with many opportunities to enter and create my "own" world within my play room.  When I have a child, I am going to do the same thing for him or her. They also taught me that it was my space and that I had to keep it clean, as well. I am pretty sure, as a matter of fact, I know I never cleaned it spotless like an adult would have; however, I was learning the concept of responsibility and taking care of property.  As I grew older, my parents home was the one that everyone in the neighborhood visited.  After homework was finished, everyone would make it to my house and we would play kickball in the yard.  We would play until dawn everyday! 

Play is very different today, as the majority of play involves digital media and watching television.  Children are so absorbed into hand-held games, X-Box's, online activities and fewer outdoor play games.  This is very different because when I was a child, I feel that I had more "hands on" experiences with toys (puzzles, cooking pretend food, making mud pies, easy bake oven, playing outside, lots of outdoor play).  I did not feel like I "had" to be entertained, as I was comfortable exploring the toys and activities that I had in my possession.  My hope is that toy companies would place more emphasis on toys that allow children to imagine, explore and strengthen their curiosity.

The role of play throughout my childhood was critical in the person that I have become today.  It is quite funny, because as I was working on this assignment, I noticed that all of my play experiences are connected directly to my present hobbies, which are cooking, hair styling, reading, interior decorating, hosting event gatherings and fashion.  I believe that through play, I was able to discover my interests, my likes, as well as, dislikes.  Who knew that this would transcend into my adult life? lol...Play is what makes us all "tick"...it enables us to have those rich, "aha" moments, even as adults.


http://www.thestrong.org/about-play/play-quotes

Relationship Reflection

Keith and I have been friends since Junior High. We have known each other for 24 years. Over a span of 10 of those years, we kept in touch sporadically. The relationship Keith and I share was built on mutual love, innocence and mutual respect. I really do not believe that it was not until later in our adult life that we really got a chance to "know" each other for the individual we had developed into as an adult. Knowing as much, we still had a sound foundation from which to build a "new" relationship, as I always loved him so very much. Keith is important in my life because I am going to spend the rest of my life with him. Our relationship is important to me because I can draw strength, support, acceptance, peace and comfort from our relationship. Our relationship is a constant source of "calmness" to my mind, body and spirt. With him....I am alright. Our relationship has been able to remain positive and healthy despite a few challenges. I believe the factors that has made our relationship remain positive attribute to our true, genuine friendship, allowing each other to have personal space/time to reflect during disagreements/disputes, forgiveness, respect, ongoing communication and true love. (yes, what we share is rare and it is definitely true love). In order to maintain our relationship, lots of communication has always been required, as for many years, our relationship was a long-distance relationship. For the past four years, we have had the opportunity to live approximately 20-30 minutes within each other! At first, that was a challenge, as we were use to speaking on telephone, email and texts. We were still in that mode! lol! We would spend time together and not say a word and when we would depart, we would burn up the phone and text messaging! lol! How funny when I think about it now! So in order to maintain healthy communication within our relationship, we had to adjust our habits. One of the challenges that we had that was detrimental in maintaining our relationship was time. With Keith being an opera singer and me being a Director of a Head Start program, mapping time out, to spend together, can be extremely difficult. From my experiences, I have learned that all relationships go through stages which include, initiation, rapport building, acceptance, adaptation, establishment of an agreement and scheduling. Special characteristics would be common goals/beliefs, mutual feelings and stability.