The other night, she was too sad to go to sleep, to cheer her up, I shared some of my funny and sweet childhood stories with her. One of the story I told her is the "Hide-and-seek" game:
I have several friends growing up with me together. We had lived in the same living quarters built for the staff working in a medicine company where our parents worked for for around 18 years. When I was in primary school, we spent a lot of time playing hide-and-seek in our yard. We set up our rules that: 1) Do not run out of the front door of the living quarters; 2) If you find someone, you should also catch him to win. One time when I was the "cat", I found two targets, one is a boy, named Hang; the other is a girl, named Jiao. Once I found them, I quickly ran to them and almost back them into the front door which is the boundary we first set up. It was at that time that Hang played a trick, he suddenly took off his pants while still running. I didn't realize that he could be so "shameless"; I instinctively covered my eyes with my hands and stopped chasing them. Therefore, they got a chance to run away.
I also told her some other funny stories, like field trip organized by ourselves with our parents sponsoring us financially every winter and summer vacation; peeking adults taking shower in public bathroom; playing pranks on odd neighbors we didn't like ......
After two hours of storytelling, my heartbroken girlfriend finally fell asleep, BUT, pathetically, I was too excited to fall asleep, still soaking myself in those sweet childhood memories. It took me at least another hour to finally go to sleep.
The reason why I value play so much is not only because of it's developmental and educational function which I cherish as a graduate student in Early Childhood Education, but also due to my authentic play experience from which I gained tremendous happiness and intimacy with my friends at that time when I was a child and these experiences continue to bring me positive energy along the way.
I have several friends growing up with me together. We had lived in the same living quarters built for the staff working in a medicine company where our parents worked for for around 18 years. When I was in primary school, we spent a lot of time playing hide-and-seek in our yard. We set up our rules that: 1) Do not run out of the front door of the living quarters; 2) If you find someone, you should also catch him to win. One time when I was the "cat", I found two targets, one is a boy, named Hang; the other is a girl, named Jiao. Once I found them, I quickly ran to them and almost back them into the front door which is the boundary we first set up. It was at that time that Hang played a trick, he suddenly took off his pants while still running. I didn't realize that he could be so "shameless"; I instinctively covered my eyes with my hands and stopped chasing them. Therefore, they got a chance to run away.
I also told her some other funny stories, like field trip organized by ourselves with our parents sponsoring us financially every winter and summer vacation; peeking adults taking shower in public bathroom; playing pranks on odd neighbors we didn't like ......
After two hours of storytelling, my heartbroken girlfriend finally fell asleep, BUT, pathetically, I was too excited to fall asleep, still soaking myself in those sweet childhood memories. It took me at least another hour to finally go to sleep.
The reason why I value play so much is not only because of it's developmental and educational function which I cherish as a graduate student in Early Childhood Education, but also due to my authentic play experience from which I gained tremendous happiness and intimacy with my friends at that time when I was a child and these experiences continue to bring me positive energy along the way.
This is wonderful, Ming, your stories, and revisiting your past is very important, I think, both to you in this class and as a scholar in general in early childhood education. Your commitment to play in the lives of children is something that I hope you keep with you always, especially in our worlds -- both China and the U.S. -- in which we are moving as cultures away from valuing play and what it give us as 'humans' in terms of being, belonging, and becoming.
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