Play Time!
As Spring arrives, the weather warms just enough to make playing outside easier. Fortunately, in California, our Winters & Springs are only a few degrees cooler than our Summers, so playing outside is possible all year long.
One thing I love about having a child is sharing my childhood with him. He loves hearing about the times when I would get in trouble and put on restriction! He's always asking my mom to tell him about my grades in school (he loves to compare our report cards). I would have to say, though, that sharing the games I loved as a child with him make for some really fun Saturdays in the park.
Stages of Play
Play is how babies and young children learn about the world around them and how to survive in it. They use their senses to learn about objects and people around them. Good games to play with babies are games like "This Little Piggie" where you sing and play with their toes.
As children grow, they play independently or in groups to enhance their social skills as well as to exercise. Games to play with young children ages 12-months to 6 years could be ones that spark their creativity and curiousity. Hide objects in the sandbox or around the house for them to find, look at bugs under a magnifying glass, play with colored water and oil in plastic bottles. Children love learning and asking questions.
When children hit age 7 or 8, many are already in some form of organized sports in which they learn how to play as a member of a team...how to cooperate and fulfill their responsibility as a teammate. Play should remain a part of their lives, even if they play an organized game. Many children do not go into organized sports, so play is essential to their physical, emotional, and social development.
This is a great age to start introducing your child to the games you enjoyed as a kid. They may have already been introduced to some of them during their time in the primary grades. But like all things passed down through history, they may have some slight variations to them.
"We don't stop playing because we get older, we get older because we stop playing!"
Just because you may think of yourself as a grown-up who is too old to play games or even get out and run, I'm certain your child would beg to differ. We often lose that childhood spirit and forget how to relax and play and take things a lot less seriously.
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