The Importance of Play

"Mommy, do you want to play with me?" 

As I looked through the chaos of the toy room yesterday, it occurred to me how important play really is. Watching the boys weed their way through strewn about mega bloks, play food, books, cars, and balls, flitting from one thing to the next, I thought about how much they were learning, how much they were growing. We all know, as parents, that play is extremely important in the development of our children. That's why we buy them toys upon toys - to stimulate some other form of their development. Blocks and puzzles for spacial skills and problem solving. Kitchens and workshops for pretend play and mimicry. Books for language development. Etc etc etc.

I thought about the way in which our toy preferences change. There's the baby toys and the toddler toys. You go from Mega Bloks to Legos. From touchy feely books to novels. From pretend phones to real phones. As we grow, so do our toys. I wondered when I stopped playing and I realized that I never did. My toys are different now. I've long since put away the Barbies {though they are still in box somewhere in the basement} and now I consider my toys to be my computer and my sewing machine. Aside for the play I do with my kids, these are the things I do to stimulate my brain and to enjoy myself. From my first computer when I was 11 or 12, to the Dell I brought with me to college, to my laptop I use now, I have always found pleasure in spending time on the computer. I've enjoyed blogging since before blogging was a term {at least one I knew!} and before I started writing about my life, I wrote fictional stories about the lives of others. That's playing, in a sense. I recently started sewing. It's definitely been a learning experience -- just like Jacob has learned to hammer and hold a level from playing in his workshop.

I guess, what I'm trying to say is, that I think it's important to continue playing even as we grow older, even if we don't recognize our toys as "toys."



Subscribe to Love{&}Bugs by Email