“When kids play, they remember. They may not be aware they are learning, but they sure
are aware they are having fun. When you have a good belly laugh with your siblings or
parents or friends, that stays with you. And the great thing is that is comes so naturally…
if we only let it.”
--Rebecca Krook, play facilitator for kids with disabilities
Play for young children is not recreation activity,... It is not leisure-time activity nor
escape activity.... Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem-
solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of-
ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his
powers in response to the stimuli he has met.
--James L. Hymes, Jr., child development specialist,
My Easy Baked Oven was one of my favorite toys that I played with all the time. I love to cook now I think it was because of my parent getting me my first Easy Baked Oven when I was 9 years old. I when through about two or three of them in my childhood. My second favorite toy that I played with a lot was my baby dolls. I just loved them I like the real size dolls. My mom always had a baby and I wanted to be just like her. Another toy I played with was my bike. It was pink and I like feeling the wind in my face when riding it.
I have 11 brothers and 3 sisters we all played together. Our house was the house that everyone came to play. We played hide and seek all summer long. We also play kick ball and soft ball all summer. I just love summer time because we played outdoor all day long. Another thing we played was house, school and church. We are a very close family and I do believe it is because our parents encourage us to play together and we prayed together also.
Play today is so different then when I was a child. Children today find going outdoors playing in the heat is a punishment. If they are not playing a video game or talking on a phone or playing with something that is making some kind of noise they are not playing. My hope for children today is to experience real imaginative play the way we did as children.
My play as I grew up help me understand real life. We played house all the time I sometimes was the mother who took care of the children and sometimes I was the big sister who had to cook dinner sometimes when mother was busy. I also play the teachers roll and I love playing the teacher. I always told my mother I was going to be a teacher when I grew up. My parents were very good about letting us grow using our imagination.
