Playtime

Whenever I happen to walk past a school at Playtime, I am always delighted by the sound of children playing . Surely, it sounds the same in any language, the  sound of children playing. When we took the children to the cinema we got as much pleasure from the children's joyful laughter as from the film. Sometimes, I took Grandma to the cinema just to hear the children laugh, to places to eat where there were children ,just to enjoy the sight of them.
Nothing gave me more pleasure when my children were very small ,than watching them dissolve in helpless giggles, deep throaty chuckles, and all I had to do was to pretend to lose my slippers or trip over.
Whenever you see children play, it's nice to  imagine them all getting on and enjoying each other's company, they are actually engaged in a very serious business. They are doing something vital to prepare them for their adult years. It is a very valuable and important learning process. It is also a very complex one.

From my Teachers Training years, I remember that Psychologists attach much importance to play and maintain that all important maturation occurs during play. It is very important for children to learn to play properly and there are various stages that have been recognized.
Functional play, parallel play, imaginative play, etc. Playing is a great and fundamental preparation for adult life.
There are generally recognized to be  certain innate behaviour tendencies, varying from one person to another,
1 The socially blind type, which takes no notice of other children and keeps mainly to itself
2 The socially dependent type , which is influenced by the presence and activities of others and shows great interest in other children .
3 the socially independent type, which though aware of others, is not affected by them.


Now we are nearing Christmas there will, hopefully, be lots of opportunities to play with the little ones!
On the side of one of our board games it says "The family that plays together stays together",
Well it's certainly worth a try!