For the Love of Play {guest posting…}
Today I’m guest posting over at my friend LaDonna’s blog, Santa Beso, where she’s hosting a conversation all week about what makes a home. Won’t you join us?
When LaDonna asked me to write about the topic play at home, I knew she had struck gold: a Play at Home Mom. This is exactly what I am! I do stay at home, in that I no long teach in a classroom, or work nine to five. And I certainly do quite a bit of work at home, mostly of the mothering and homemaking variety, as well as writing and art and a bit of design. But really, this Play at Home title suits me best. I am a kid at heart: I prefer picture books to memoirs; I’d choose fort-building over furniture re-arranging any day.
It’s not that I spend all my waking hours building block towers alongside my toddlers and dressing up in Rapunzel costumes, although, quite frankly, I might prefer it to grocery shopping and cleaning out the fridge. Our days are filled with unending mountains of laundry and a steady liturgy of dishes and diapers, punctuated by the occasional tantrum. But even in the midst of the messes and the mundane, we are cultivating a culture of play.
Create a Culture Of Play
Creating a culture of play has less to do with toys and more to do with nurturing a sense of wonder, an inkling of story. This kind of play spans across time, culture and class. It provides opportunity to build strong relationships along side, to package valuable (even difficult) lessons in developmentally palatable bites. Play is an invitation to simplicity, to small, important things. In our home, we try to encourage an ongoing conversation full of curiosity, made up adventures replete with recurring characters, long pockets of quiet tinkering and even an occasional wild rumpus.
Wonder, curiosity, story: this is the currency of childhood, and I plan to deposit a large investment in the banks my children’s memories.
Please know, this doesn’t mean every moment is picture perfect; far from it. We don’t spend our days crafting moments right off of (and, naturally, back onto) Pinterest. And it’s not that my kids don’t occasionally consume one too many Netflix episodes. That happens here, too. We live in the real world. But, as I’ve sat down and thought about how we fill our days with wonder and creativity and story, there are some practical things we do (some unintentionally, some purposefully) to make our home, well, playful. I hope some of these practices resonate, none of them shame, and that you’ll share with us how you cultivate play!
Click here to keep reading & share your thoughts over at LaDonna’s site, Santa Beso.
