“My Connections to Play.”

The quotes that I feel summarized what play represented to me in childhood.

Childhood is the most beautiful of all life's seasons.  ~Author Unknown

The older I grow the more earnestly I feel that the few joys of childhood are the best that life has to give.  ~Ellen Glasgow

There comes a time in every rightly constructed boy's life that he has a raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure.  ~Mark Twain

I am from a family of seven children.  Being from a large family we spent a lot of ours play outdoors.  Growing up on the east coast we had the pleasure of celebrating seasons.  No matter the weather we had a game that we could play.

 Winter meant sledding until our clothes were wet and our mother was threaten us to come in or else. 

Spring finally I can ride my bike.  And ride I do to the park, to the school yard and home before the street lights come on.   

Summer finally “schools out for summer.”  I still wake up at 7:00am as if I have to go to school.  And I play from sun up too sunset.  And then I get to play some more.  I just can’t leave the front of the house and that’s when the real fun beings.  Kick the can, hide and seek, and he Ouji board. 

Fall the trees are beautiful.  Raking leave turns into a wonderful adventure.   

As I think back to my childhood play years.  I can’t help but feel sorry for what children today consider play.  When I think of early childhood, happy or unhappy, chaotic or relaxed, the imagined childhoods we might have had or wish for my children.  Children are missing out on a world of experience.  Some that represents a quality of life.  I want to give my students great experiences and establish a good rapport with them. 

Relationship Reflection

Relationships, it is deepest of all bonds humans develop. Yet we neglect to value and nurture.  Nonetheless, we feel the most painful emotions when we lose someone close to us and remorseful that we did not spend enough time with them.

I am the fifth daughter.  My parents were blessed with seven daughters.  We were realized in neighbourhoods where people didn’t quite understand how my father became the boss at the largest plant in town.  After all we didn’t look like them.  Therefore we spend most of our time with each other.  Reading, playing school and planning our further.  As adults we moved to different parts of the country promising to meet at least once a year to reconnect.  Not a Sunday goes by that we don’t speak to one another.  To this day my relationship with each of them is important.    This assignment makes me wonder if we were that important to one another then why did we move away?

My spouse, He makes me feel good about me.  He builds me up all the while keeping it real with me.  He is truly the only person that I can open up about anything.  He does not judge me.  He know this is who I am and he’s good with that.  My sisters were not happy for me.  They were honestly rude and hurtful towards me about my getting married.  He encourages me to forgive.  We celebrated 20 of marriage last week.  

My girls, I have two wonderful daughters.  I can say that now.  We are almost threw our teen years!  The dreams and plans I had and still have for them are bigger then I knew I could dream.  They have taught me lessons only children have the power to teach.  Is it really so bad that I see them as a reflection of me?

My co-worker Miss. Stacie, her classroom is diagonally across from mine.  We share tales of challenging students, lesson plans, the best words use when speaking with a parent.  We share our lunch, recipes, issues that have come up at home and district frustrations.  But the most important thing we share everyday is laughter!     

I share a partnership within each of these relationships because they are apart of whom I am and who I can.   They touch me in someway everyday. 

What else could a girl ask for?  At almost 48 years of age I still crave to have a "Bestie".  You know the girlfriend bond that so many books and movies talk about.  It's never to late.