Last night while in bed I started watching youtube videos of children playing pretend/make-believe. That somehow turned into watching videos of people getting scared out of their sleep. Diego was asleep next to me and after a while, whenever I would laugh at one of these videos, he would also laugh, in his sleep. It was hilarious. He couldn't hear the videos because I had earphones in but my laughing must have just provoked him to laugh, too. He'd laugh and smile, then it would just disappear and he'd be sleeping like normal again. lol.
Why was I watching videos of children playing?
I am reading that book about raising healthy boys right now and it began discussing types of play and how make-believe is widely considered to be the healthiest form of play for children. I have very clear, almost vivid memories of playing pretend as a child. I can almost completely put myself back into that mindset of what I was thinking and seeing at the time. Eventually we just kind of lose that, though, don't we?
I remember when I first played Barbies and found it really hard. My dad's girlfriend had a little girl about 6 years younger than me, I guess. I was like 13 or 14 maybe so maybe she was like 7 or 8. I wasn't playing Barbies anymore, is the point. We went to their house one day and she wanted me to play with her. I figured it might be fun to do so I tried. A couple seconds into playing I was thinking how in the world did I used to do this? How do you play Barbies, again??
I'll admit I was a late-bloomer, if that's the right term. No, it's not. I ... had a long childhood. It drug out. I remember being in fifth grade and hearing some girls talk in the line at recess about how none of them played Barbies anymore. Or with dolls, especially baby dolls. They hadn't for a while. This shocked me. I still did all those things! lol. I drank my bottle until I was four, and I played Barbies well into fifth grade.
Any of you ever play the awesome game of HOT LAVA? I think my little sister and I played that well into me being in 6th grade. heheh. Having a younger sister must have contributed to my childhood being so long. We would watch TV after school and during commercials we'd jump all over the furniture and try to push each other off, then when we were successful we'd try to save each other from the HAT LAVA down below. I could actually see the red, smoldering hot lava that was actually the floor. I can still see it today. My friend Camille told me that she and her brothers used to do the same thing, except it was usually in the kitchen on the counters. lol.
I also absolutely loved to make mud-pies. And play with flour and water. Mixing things was always so fun. I'd go around and gather up a bunch of stuff from bushes and get some dirt and mix it all together with some water. My sister and I would make fake treasure maps and bury them outside, believing someone would find the map and try to find the treasure. We used to ride around on our bikes and pretend we were secret spy agents going on missions. We'd dig shit out of the apartment's trash cans and build 'club houses' behind this big wall on the property. They always got taken away by the garbage man but we always had fun rebuilding. We had one of those little plastic kid's picnic tables, you know what I'm talking about? We would turn that upside down and sit in it like it was a boat, rocking around like crazy and pretend there were sharks in the 'water'. That was probably one of the funnest games we played - I'd still love to play that to this day! We would rock it really hard so that it almost tipped over! And HOT LAVA! And let's not get me started on the years we spent in Texas. They were wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful for running around outside, discovering new things, climbing trees, running through huge open fields, etc.
It makes me sad that a lot of kids just sit inside all day these days, playing video games and watching TV. I'm just 20 years old - I've been around since video games. Granted, there wasn't much at that time made for 2nd graders, but even when I got older and was in 5th grade and on, I was always playing and using my imagination. I think my childhood must have officially ended the summer between 7th and 8th grade when we moved out of those apartments. The new ones we moved to didn't allow any fun. No biking, roller blading, scootering, nothing. I was SO DISSAPOINTED. It made me so sad for months that I had nothing to do but sit in the house or walk around. So sad... My spirit was crushed. I tried to ride my bike a few times but the apartment folk would tell me it wasn't aloud. :( Yea, that was the summer after 7th grade. I was still, still at that age, very much wanting to play outside and use my imagination. A lot of girls had lost their virginity by that age!!
A lot of parents out there want to 'give their child what they didn't have'. Well, I want to give my child what I DID have. There wasn't much I didn't have. At least not that I was aware of. You could give me a beat up old chair and a stick and I'd have the time of my life. I didn't miss video games or fancy toys because I didn't really have them. I mean, sometimes I'd go to other girls' houses and see their HUGE collection of barbies and barbie accessories and coveted that, but whatever. I had my fun, too. One of my boy friends gave me a nice big toy rig that I loved to play with with him. That girl didn't have a shiny black toy big rig that had a detachable trailer! I loved that truck...
Maybe some of the games on computers and game consoles etc. are supposed to help children learn and stuff, so people are like COOL. But I don't think they create the great memories that I think I'm really lucky to have. I mean yeah I have fun looking back on playing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers as a child, but if that were my whole childhood... That'd be kinda sad. And for a lot of kids today, that is almost their whole childhood. That and TV. I watched TV a couple days a week for about an hour after school, and always on Saturday Mornings for the cartoons. :) I was always up before my mom on the weekends and would be outside playing by 8 o'clock. I would come back inside around that time, too.
Ah... I have to get ready for the day. Would love to hear your about your childhood!
Why was I watching videos of children playing?
I am reading that book about raising healthy boys right now and it began discussing types of play and how make-believe is widely considered to be the healthiest form of play for children. I have very clear, almost vivid memories of playing pretend as a child. I can almost completely put myself back into that mindset of what I was thinking and seeing at the time. Eventually we just kind of lose that, though, don't we?
I remember when I first played Barbies and found it really hard. My dad's girlfriend had a little girl about 6 years younger than me, I guess. I was like 13 or 14 maybe so maybe she was like 7 or 8. I wasn't playing Barbies anymore, is the point. We went to their house one day and she wanted me to play with her. I figured it might be fun to do so I tried. A couple seconds into playing I was thinking how in the world did I used to do this? How do you play Barbies, again??
I'll admit I was a late-bloomer, if that's the right term. No, it's not. I ... had a long childhood. It drug out. I remember being in fifth grade and hearing some girls talk in the line at recess about how none of them played Barbies anymore. Or with dolls, especially baby dolls. They hadn't for a while. This shocked me. I still did all those things! lol. I drank my bottle until I was four, and I played Barbies well into fifth grade.
Any of you ever play the awesome game of HOT LAVA? I think my little sister and I played that well into me being in 6th grade. heheh. Having a younger sister must have contributed to my childhood being so long. We would watch TV after school and during commercials we'd jump all over the furniture and try to push each other off, then when we were successful we'd try to save each other from the HAT LAVA down below. I could actually see the red, smoldering hot lava that was actually the floor. I can still see it today. My friend Camille told me that she and her brothers used to do the same thing, except it was usually in the kitchen on the counters. lol.
I also absolutely loved to make mud-pies. And play with flour and water. Mixing things was always so fun. I'd go around and gather up a bunch of stuff from bushes and get some dirt and mix it all together with some water. My sister and I would make fake treasure maps and bury them outside, believing someone would find the map and try to find the treasure. We used to ride around on our bikes and pretend we were secret spy agents going on missions. We'd dig shit out of the apartment's trash cans and build 'club houses' behind this big wall on the property. They always got taken away by the garbage man but we always had fun rebuilding. We had one of those little plastic kid's picnic tables, you know what I'm talking about? We would turn that upside down and sit in it like it was a boat, rocking around like crazy and pretend there were sharks in the 'water'. That was probably one of the funnest games we played - I'd still love to play that to this day! We would rock it really hard so that it almost tipped over! And HOT LAVA! And let's not get me started on the years we spent in Texas. They were wonderful. Wonderful, wonderful for running around outside, discovering new things, climbing trees, running through huge open fields, etc.
It makes me sad that a lot of kids just sit inside all day these days, playing video games and watching TV. I'm just 20 years old - I've been around since video games. Granted, there wasn't much at that time made for 2nd graders, but even when I got older and was in 5th grade and on, I was always playing and using my imagination. I think my childhood must have officially ended the summer between 7th and 8th grade when we moved out of those apartments. The new ones we moved to didn't allow any fun. No biking, roller blading, scootering, nothing. I was SO DISSAPOINTED. It made me so sad for months that I had nothing to do but sit in the house or walk around. So sad... My spirit was crushed. I tried to ride my bike a few times but the apartment folk would tell me it wasn't aloud. :( Yea, that was the summer after 7th grade. I was still, still at that age, very much wanting to play outside and use my imagination. A lot of girls had lost their virginity by that age!!
A lot of parents out there want to 'give their child what they didn't have'. Well, I want to give my child what I DID have. There wasn't much I didn't have. At least not that I was aware of. You could give me a beat up old chair and a stick and I'd have the time of my life. I didn't miss video games or fancy toys because I didn't really have them. I mean, sometimes I'd go to other girls' houses and see their HUGE collection of barbies and barbie accessories and coveted that, but whatever. I had my fun, too. One of my boy friends gave me a nice big toy rig that I loved to play with with him. That girl didn't have a shiny black toy big rig that had a detachable trailer! I loved that truck...
Maybe some of the games on computers and game consoles etc. are supposed to help children learn and stuff, so people are like COOL. But I don't think they create the great memories that I think I'm really lucky to have. I mean yeah I have fun looking back on playing Duck Hunt and Super Mario Brothers as a child, but if that were my whole childhood... That'd be kinda sad. And for a lot of kids today, that is almost their whole childhood. That and TV. I watched TV a couple days a week for about an hour after school, and always on Saturday Mornings for the cartoons. :) I was always up before my mom on the weekends and would be outside playing by 8 o'clock. I would come back inside around that time, too.
Ah... I have to get ready for the day. Would love to hear your about your childhood!
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Re: Childhood, the best part
My childhood was all lego's and K*nex all the time. and Power rangers.
Unfortunately, I still watch power rangers, and I still play with legos.
I am six years old.
Unfortunately, I still watch power rangers, and I still play with legos.
I am six years old.
Me, too. In Every other respect, I grew up fast. I was eating adult food when I was two months old, because I was in danger of losing too much weight on baby food. I was proficiently operating heavy machinery by the time I was 8, and consuming books before I started kindergarten, but I never outgrew playing with Legos and building things in the dirt with sticks and rocks.
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