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PLAY!

I currently work at the YMCA for their after school program so i feel like I get the opportunity to play everyday.  Being around youth at work, I feel like I'm a little kid again and although I'm there watching them, I make sure they have fun and I'm having fun.  I recall this past week, I played in many different ways.  I played football with a few of the kids and a lot of the kids at the Y, like to play with stuffed animals and littlest pet shops, so I made sure that I played along with their animals and the story line they had going.  I probably hadn't played with stuffed animals or little dolls since I was maybe 10, so it brought me back to being that age and I felt like a little kid, with no worries in the world.  Following with Jenkins "6 Ps," I think this followed the first rule which is, permission.  Before playing, I had to give myself permission to play with dolls.  This isn't an activity I would normally engage in while I was at home, but I was at work with the youth and I wanted to give myself permission and play along with them.  I think it's also important to give ourselves permission to do silly things without fear of judgement or because we're an adult that we're not supposed to play with dolls.  This also follows along with another one of the rules, which is participation.  The kids at work asked me to play with them and I made the decision to participate.  I also participated because I wanted to know more about what they were doing and what kinds of "stories" they were coming up with.  To see them be young and innocent and not have a care in the world, really brought me back to my childhood and I was happy that I was able to feel like a kid again and that they asked me to play along with them.

Comments

  1. Victoria RestlerOctober 4, 2018 at 11:43 AM

    Thanks for your great post Ashlee. I think your experience brings up a big question for educators and youth workers--we can be with young people all the time, watching them (monitoring, or sometimes regulating, analyzing, etc.) their play, but it doesn't mean that we (as adults) are playing ourselves. What does it mean to join in with young people this way? What do we learn through this mode of engagement that we don't learn otherwise? What (if, any) are the risks?

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