In this profession we understand the importance of play in the lives of children. I certainly go a lot of play drilled into my brain during my “Theories of Play” class in college! I’m sharing a video with this post of the Life is Good Playmakers, click here. I hope you find their video as inspiring as I do. I have dreams to be able to become a playmaker at some point in my professional career. These playmakers understand the importance of play during adverse childhood experiences and strive to create opportunities for play where they might not otherwise exist. I take the time to play with the kids I see in the hospital, because I know they can better process their hospital experiences through play. These playmakers do the same thing outside of a medical environment.
Sadly, there isn’t as much time or opportunity for play these days. Instead, children are put in multiple organized sports and other numerous extracurricular activities. I was a nanny throughout college, and the family I worked for had two kids. Both of them had some activity of some sort every night of the week… including weekends! This does not allow much time for kids to just be kids, and it definitely leaves out time for play. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for involvement to help kids learn how to follow rules and play well with others. But, I also firmly believe that there is such a thing as too much scheduled time during childhood. So, let’s play it forward when we can. Give kids the opportunity to play and share this message with parents when we are able.
-K
Comments