My Connections to Play

My Connections to Play

“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything, than when we are at play.”
― Charles E. Schaefer

“Go and play. Run around. Build something. Break something. Climb a tree. Get dirty. Get in some trouble. Have some fun.”
― Brom, The Child Thief

Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn. 

― O. Fred Donaldson

It was late 1980s when I was in early childhood. At that time, adults were busy working and making a living in order to live a better life. Therefore, parents seldom spent much time playing with their child and even let their children play as much as possible so that they had much more time to work. I was brought up by my grandparents so I had a very close relationship with my parents and every holiday I would go back to my hometown and visit them. There I would play with my cousins nearby my grandparents' house, where there was a small sand hill that was the leftover from construction, three banana trees and a guava tree next to the house, but no other children’s facilities in the countryside. My grandparents would sit down where they could have a view of what we were doing and just watched us to make sure we were safe and played nicely with each other.

Just as the quote from Brom states, “Go and play. Run around. Build something. Break something. Climb a tree. Get dirty. Get in some trouble. Have some fun.” My cousins and I ran up and down the sand hill playing catching games; built something out of the sand using some old bowls, plates, spoons and chopsticks; climbing up the guava tree and sat on the wall, pretending that I could fly, trying to catch the wind; etc.. Those were our outdoor play, which helped promote my physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. 

Compared with the outdoor play nowadays, there is a place in a community special for children’s facilities— play becomes more and more important in people’s eyes; however, unlike the children in the past who used natural materials as play tools, children nowadays have less chances to have a connection with nature in their play. For me, I prefer to play in a more natural surroundings, where we can develop a sense of and have a connection with the real natural world.

Play is vital to my whole development. In my childhood, through play, I made friends; I developed relationships with my cousins and my siblings; I knew how to negotiate, share, communicate, imagine and have fun. Play is a facilitator for my development. In my adolescence, play is a poiser that helps buffer my pressure on my study. Now in adulthood, play is a success that I always find to time to achieve though it is hard for a busy life; I would feel enormously happy and satisfied when I can have this success.

Here below are some photos of some play items in my childhood:

These were popular dolls when I was young. With my sister and cousins, I pretended to be a mom, a sister or any one who would take care of this baby.

This was a game that children played with fingers using a string, which would practice cognitive and thinking skills.

This was my favourite game that I liked to play. It helps to practice thinking and mathematic skills.

Relationship Reflection

Relationship Reflection

Definitely I am not isolated but interrelated with the people around me, including my family, my friends,  and my colleagues, and even my flowers, etc., who and which have a great impact on my way of thinking, my attitudes and my life at home and in my workplace; from whom and which I can learn experience and practices that benefit me a lot. The people who affect me a lot in my daily life and in my work are my sister Xiaocong, my friend Claire, my colleague Lindsay and my health consultant Jinping; my lily flowers also benefit me to some extent.

My sister and me 

Xiaocong, my sister, is always acting as my guide and facilitator in my personal life. My sister is willing to listen carefully and patiently to what I say to her. After I finish my words, my sister will share her opinions about my topic; and if I come across some confusions, she will guide me step by step by telling me if she were me, what she would do and what outcomes would probably be brought. Through our mutual communication and care, we feel close to each other, comfortable to listen to each other, and willing to take the other’s perspective and find a better way to clear our confusions or solve our problems. What’s more, since we are sisters, we have the same family background, in which we understand each other better.

My friend and me

My friend, Claire, who once was my classmate in my college and now is my housemate, is a very close friend to me. When we were in college, we got to know each other, started to learn each other’s family, gradually knew each other’s academic achievement and thus helped each other in study and life. Now we rent and live in the same house, where we have more time and opportunities to understand each other’s life style, habits, ways of problem solving and thinking, etc.. The closer we are, the more conflicts may happen. However, we try to stay calm and sit down for a talk, we respect each other’s own ways of thinking, are open communicators and honest in our thought. Thus, we build up a mutual-trust and mutual-assistance relationship between each other.

My colleagues

Lindsay, my colleague,  as a classroom teacher, and I, as a teaching assistant, are working in the same classroom for children aged 3-4 years old in this schooling year. Professionally, she is not only the teacher of the children, but also the teacher of me, who is knowledgeable, experienced, updated and willing to share her experience in the early childhood field. From her I can learn some practical experience and teaching strategies. Personally, we are friends, too. In our spare time, we will schedule some time, plan some outdoor activities and have fun together, simply like a Japanese dinner that both of us like to eat. Though some problems would occur due to different cultures and customs, we put aside out biases, welcome the diversity and may try new things and then have a brand-new experience. 

My lovely flower

My health consultant, Jinping, gives me lots of advice on how to live a healthy life and encourage me to have a positive attitude towards my current and future life, through texting messages or posts on the personal blog, which always reminds me that our physical and emotional well-being is so important in every aspect of our life, such as the development and maintenance of relationships among people, the performance of our professional work, and our attitudes towards people and events, etc.. 

I love to have some fresh flowers in my room, which makes me have a good mood and spend time and effort taking care of them. Every time when I come back home and open my door, I will take a look at the flowers to check if they need more water, if they grow well or if any bud comes into blossom. Through taking care of the flower, I learn to be observant and patient, waiting to see the beautiful outcome.

From the relationships above that I am talking about, factors that contribute to developing and maintaining each relationship can be concluded into the following: communication, through which we make clear our confusions, misunderstanding, diverse ways of thinking and attitudes, etc.; care, which makes us bond with and be close to each other; learning others’  background, which help to acquire the basic information have a better understanding of people; mutual-trust and mutual assistance, with which relationships are strengthened and maintained if problems occur; respect, with which we can cross a cultural barrier among people; willingness to share, which help us exchange ideas and experience and broaden our views, and thus cherish the beneficial relationships; patience, which is one of the basic factor of all kinds of relationship because it makes relationships sustainable.

All these factors are also the characteristics that make partnerships, for example, family partnership. Working as an effective early childhood professional, those factors, which I have learned from the multifaceted and interrelated relationships, positively affect me a lot.  When working with children and their , I learn to be patient, caring, attentive, communicable, respectful, trusting, helpful and willing to share ideas and experience, so that we can meet the needs of children, help to develop a holistic child, partner with family and work together on the same page to improve children’s learning and development and so on.