"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb. Brooks to wade, water lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets. And any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of education."
— Luther Burbank "As a child, one has that magical capacity to move among the many eras of the earth; to see the land as an animal does; to experience the sky from the perspective of a flower or a bee; to feel the earth quiver and breathe beneath us; to know a hundred different smells of mud and listen unself- consciously to the soughing of the trees."
— Valerie Andrews
I grew up in a rural area in Eastern Illinois. For most of my childhood my playmates were my parents, my little brother, and my pets. The people in my life supported play through exposure to nature and freedom to explore. I had toys, don't get me wrong. A furnished dollhouse, dolls and stuffed animals, My Little Ponies, Barbies. I had a bicycle, a swing set, and a swimming pool. I even had computers in the 80's to play games on. But my favorite memories of play, and the ones that stand out in my mind, are those times when I was outdoors by myself or with my brother. We went outside empty-handed and created played through our imaginations. My brother was probably the biggest supporter of my play- always willing to go along with my ideas or to include me in what he was up to. My favorite play included my brother, was unstructured, open-ended, and nature-based.
We rode our bikes down the lanes on our property and down the long country roads surrounding our house. We built 'houses' in the tall orchard grass by rolling paths and trampling out rooms. We flooded the driveway with a hose and trenched out rivers and lakes, building bridges and buildings out of sticks and carving roads for matchbox cars. We carried my toy horses to a creek in the woods nearby and dammed up little pools for them. We assigned my house (the sun porch) and my brother's house (the VW van) and went to work (the garage) and to the gas station (the old farm gas pump). We built forts in the barn and played run-a-ways Boxcar Children style.
Children don't often play that way anymore. They don't have the freedom of time like we did- long afternoons with no structured activities. They are less likely to have permission (or forgiveness) to roam over acres and acres of woods, fields, and riverside terrain. They sometimes don't even seem to know how to transform a tree or stick or puddle into something useful and amusing. Imagination is something that is imposed on them through television, film, and gaming instead of something that grows from them.I hope that my children have found a way to enjoy our farm in ways which are similar to the play I experienced as a child. I hope, despite the fact that they are not allowed to ride their bikes in the road, that their bikes are tools for exploration. I hope, despite the fact that they are not allowed to play near the pond or on the dock, that they have chances to get a little wet and muddy while playing. I hope, despite the fact that they have play practice and basketball practice and dance rehearsal, that they feel like they have long empty days mixed in to fill with imaginings.
I believe the type of play I experienced as a child has helped me form an extremely connected relationship with nature. I think there are positive aspects of my personality that grew out of the experiences I had in nature as a child: my work ethic, my open-mindedness, my easy-going disposition. I am still a player at heart- at any time during my adult life, I would be happiest if given a moment to step outside, take a leisurely walk, lay in the grass with a kitten or two, or use my imagination in reading or writing.
One image from childhood sticks with me: I am playing house in my back yard with several of our cats. I lay back on a blanket spread out under a tree and take in the vivid blue sky peeking at me through green leaves. That pure, peaceful view of the world of blue through green is a happy place I return to again and again, and carries with it a lesson I learned that day about the simple pleasures found in nature, peace, and play.
Read more about my thoughts on play in nature then an now on page 12:
http://greatstartforkids.org/sites/default/files/file/CONNECTions/CONNECTions_Fall%202011_FINAL_9_28_11.pdf
