sharing experiences

"Sharing experiences --- whether about our childhood or about likes and dislikes, happy and unhappy times --- is another way of integrating play, love and work. For when we share experiences, we represent our experiences (play), share it with our family (love), and develop communication skills (work). ... When we share experiences with our children, we come to appreciate then as individuals and give them the freedom to be the best they can be. We give them wings to sail with the wind. With roots and wings, children as best prepared to weather the climate of schooling ..." From The Power of Play by David Elkind The holiday dinner table with the extended family; whether the Sherlock side or the Proulx side is a wonderful discussion setting for three generations. Dolores and I have our siblings and their families along with our parents. There generally is an "adults" table and a "kids" table. There is some mix of the generations at each table and it is all good. The discussion and sharing that occurs at these times is much like what is referenced by David. Especially now that our daughters are off to college, we don't get the chance to have the dinner discussion like we used to regularly. These holiday times become all the more special. How do you share? Do you have a regular meal together?

sharing our passions

"One of the best ways of ensuring our children both play and develop lifelong habits of play is to share our personal passions with them. Our passions are activities we love and engage in whenever we have the opportunity to do so. Whether golf, gardening, fishing, or jogging, passions give us a creative outlet that we may not find in our jobs or professions. They allow us to realize our personal talents and abilities. Children are blessed when we have passions that we can share with them. While they might not take them up, they have the opportunity to see us engaged in something we love and do for no other reason than the shear pleasure of doing it." From The Power of Play by David Elkind I have run for 30 plus years. I did not always run every day, usually 3-4 days per week. Since I've used the FIRST plan, it has generally been 3 days per week. My daughters have not known me without an association to running. They have been exposed to our diverse musical tastes. They have been exposed to our love of reading. One of the key factors in determining the layout of our 3-season porch was the requirement for four comfortable chairs so all of us would have a place to read together.

forts and boxes

"I became aware of another variety of playacting several years ago. A graduate student at Leslie University made an appointment to see me. When me met, Mark tolld me that he had taught at a Montessori school nearby. He said that he was intrigued by something he had observed during the children's lunch hour. Both boys and girls would go into the woods and build makeshift "forts" out of tree limbs, rocks and brush. ... I was indeed intrigued by the idea of forts because it was a facet of child life that I knew nothing about, despite many years in the field." From The Power of Play by David Elkind As much as I loved the book, this is one section I found surprising. David, where have you been studying kids at play to not know about forts or about related structures that kids love to build? I recall using blankets and pillows on our bunk beds to make a private play space. It became a fort when one of my brothers or sisters try to enter. We moved a couple of times and each time my daughters and their friends loved playing with the moving boxes. On the last move here to Franklin, the arrangement of boxes; large wardrobe, big dinnerware, and smaller book boxes all became quite elaborately connected with Duct tape. There were doors, windows and tunnels. Then the outsides were decorated with markers, the floors were covered with extra area rugs or old towels. It became something of a kids Taj Mahal made of boxes. And what family has not seen some little kids opening presents on either their birthday or around the holidays, where the kid has been more enthralled with the wrapping paper and the box than the toy itself? Sometimes the simplest box can become the most fabulous toy! When was the last time you played with a box?

playful handle for lapses

"Young children have the same problem with many other rules we try to inculcate, such as putting their toys away, picking up things they have dropped, not getting up from the table, and so on. If we appreciate that these lapses reflect intellectual immaturity rather than stubbornness, or rebellion, we can handle them in a playful way. When we do this the child is more likely to learn the rule than if we criticized the child for something he cannot help." From The Power of Play by David Elkind David goes on to mention a few alternatives to using this playful approach. As parents, we need to be mindful that they (as children) are intellectually immature and that the best approach is the playful one. If you chose the punishment route, you are just starting on a path of more escalations which are doomed to failure because the child is intellectually immature. They don't comprehend the rules. They are looking to play. If you play along with them and set the rules by playing, there will be successful development of the behavior you are looking for.

The Power of Play - Quote Series

The following posts were centered on quotes from The Power of Play, David Elkind, Ph.D. play, love, work iconic literacy the diamond test skill mastery and innovative play cooperation, competition The full book review playful approach ordinality forts and boxes sharing passions sharing experiences