Play 9.19

Games:

• Eye contact, switch places- you do this without the center person getting your spot
• Zip, Zap,Zop- hand game
• Make An Idea-make that idea
• gas station
• typewriter (as a class)

Ok, can i first say i think the eye contact game was DANGEROUS! lol i was running into people and almost broke a nail! lol but apart from that, the game was fun. It was a bit tricky. I think the key was to not look at someone A C R O S S the circle because traveling that way, you would be sure to get caught. it was fun to see people dipping and jumping just to make it to the other spot! -haha

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Chapter 2: "What is play and Why Do We Do It?"

• Resist defining play
• it is so varied
• play is primal
• best by experiencing it
• Seven properties of play
• no survival value
• not required
• cure for boredom
• freedom from time
• we stop worrying
• we are open to chance
• we desire to keep doing it
• Six step process
• anticipation-surprise-pleasure-understanding-strength-poise

I had never thought about how these are related to each other and how they work to bring "a sense of balance in life." (p.19)

One comment was made that said "If we leave the emotion of play out of the science, it like throwing a dinner party and serving pictures of food." (p.21) -great comparison- you don't want to just hear how good the food is, you want to taste it too! This is exactly the same for play. You can hear the dynamics of play but you cannot relate unless you get a full experience which would be to include your own personal experience in it.

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Play 9.14

 Games: 

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Reading: " Old Fashioned Play Builds Serious Skill"

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Journal Prompt #2: "Play As A Catalyst"

One aspect of play that was lacking in my life was dance. I love to dance but i don't remember the last time I've danced, been to any dances or just moved freely without care. Dance catalyzes when i am stressed. It in a way "loosens" me so that i am no longer stressed or at least more stressed than i was. i can now see myself bringing dance back into my life once or twice in a week. It made me feel more silly which is different from the more serious attitude I've taken to things.
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Play 9.12

Games: 

• Say your name, what did you eat for breakfast
• shapes/mingle

Easy enough games, the shapes/ mingle game made me excited for what shape we would be making next. very excited throughout this time.

We got in groups of 6 and went outside and played these games:

• hopscotch
• Tag (for once in my WHOLE life, i did NOT get tagged!) *smiles*
• moment of wonder
• walking speed race
• duck duck goose
• red light, green light
• mr. fox, what time is it?
•  telephone
• dance
• sing-a-song
• chicken game

The absolute worse game we played in our group was telephone. it is so hard with only 6 people. The message came out correct so we changed it just to be funny a couple of times going through the game. I'm sure it would have been more fun with added people. The game also seemed pretty awkward. The absolute best game was the chicken game. It was a game of rock paper scissors but in like stages (egg, bird, human) and you could only play with your species egg-egg, human-human, bird-bird. Brought lots of laughter. fun game.

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Reading: "The Benefits of Play"

Play allows for us to benefit in areas of mental health. it makes you happier. Socially, play reduces alienation.  Play allows you to meet others. Learning takes place more effectively. Culturally, play helps us meet the challenges of the world. One skill of play that i can 100 % agree with because i have experienced it just about everytime i have played is improvisation. When you, play, it is almost always hard for you to follow the rules when you play. You kind of have to just go with the flow. That, in my opinion makes for the best play. Non-competitiveness was a beneficial element of imaginative play. I appreciate this element because it allows for one of the associated skills, inclusiveness.The ability of imaginative play to develop creativity is great seeing that creativity was always limited to intellectual techniques. It doesn't have to be seen that way anymore because through imaginative play, we create images and ideas in our mind based off of no intellectual knowledge but our feelings instead.
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Play 9.7

Games:

• Donkey - Rabbit (make a bunny tail), elephant (make a trunk), jello (wiggle wiggle), donkey (do nothing)!
• GAK - molding into shapes. i made a belt!
• The Sky Is Falling - free form when "the sky is falling" is shouted
• The Gift - YOU get to decide what your gift is and your partner tells you why they gave it to you

My favorite game was donkey because you had to be quick on your toes but it was still fun. It made you anxious and you participated on someone else turn just to keep you active. very fun. and when you got caught, it wasn't bad. it didn't make you feel bad. it was more funny than it was depressing.

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Chapter 1: "The Promise of Play"

In this chapter, we learned about play  and how its not only the key to being happy but also used for social relationships and being a creative, innovative person. (p.6) Different aspect we read about were play as a catalyst where we read about Laurel, a CEO who's married with two children. she was missing joy so she went back to something she loved, riding horses. That carried with her through her work and time with her family so she no longer dreaded her schedule. I agree with the idea of play as a catalyst because when you have something that you love or you have an experience filled with joy, you can think back on that specific thing and bring back that euphoric feeling you felt at the time making your days much better if you aren't having a bad day. Have you ever had that happen? Maybe you're walking and something that happened a while ago comes to mind and you begin to smile or laugh. That's play working as a catalyst. "Those who worked and played with their hands as they were growing up were able to "see solutions" that those who hadn't worked with their hands could not." (p.10) 

• Lynne wasn't sick, she was a dancer.

The above point opened my eyes on how quick we are to bring our problems to the hands of science. Lynne's mother was so quick to decide her daughter was sick and needed medicine instead of sitting down and trying to figure out her daughters needs. It also illustrates the fact we are not as open to different methods of learning or varied results of normalcy. What was normal for Lynne, (dancing), her mother didn't understand her inability to sit down was normal and her method of learning.  

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Journal Prompt #1 (206-216)

I have always felt free to do and be what i chose. My mom along with my whole family encourages spontaneity and creativeness in ourselves and I'm so lucky to have them support that idea. Yes, its a part of my life now because is a part of me. Those are two of my biggest traits that i love about myself. My creativeness and the fact that I'm a very spontaneous person. Impediments to play in my life i would say would include when slowly but surely, my siblings begin to get older and leave the house (college). Some kinds of play disappeared from my repertoire because of the above impediments. Being that i am the youngest, i had less and less siblings to play with until it was just me. and so play being to end for me. Ways i have discovered of re initiating lost play were by befriending people who were just as playful as me and I'm happy to say that today, i have some of the best friends ever. Also, i now have nieces and a nephew who LOVE to play and so for me, it like starting over. i get to teach them games and they also teach me new games they may have learned.

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