Play Event Reflection - Adult Intervention?

Last Saturday, We J762ers had a wonderful play event with around 10 lovely children from age 6 to 11 in the school of education. We provided plenty of materials, such as papers, beads, hardboards, lids, and all other stuff like that and art supplies.

At first, I was standing aside watching them playing. A lovely sweet boy and girl twins caught my attention. They were active but polite and always being together. Once they made a progress in their project, they would eagerly went to their mom's office, on the same floor, to show what they have made to her. Another thing that impressed me a lot is that the six-year old boy Q had been focused on a jigsaw puzzle for a considerably long time and not been distracted at all. After he finished the puzzle, he even went further by decorating it. Finally, the puzzle turned out to be an amazing art work.

Unlike Q's attentiveness, the 6-year old boy J is comparably easily to be distracted. I noticed that he have tried making several projects but always ended in the middle. Watching him lingering around his companions, I though maybe I should help him. I started to make a scale using a round plastic tray and asked him to come to me. He seemed quite interested in the project I was doing. "Do you wanna try?", I asked him and gave him the half finished project. J nodded his heads and took it over and started working on it. To help him, I Googled a picture of the scale to show him what it should be like. With my help, J finally finished the scientific project and did highly focused on it for quite a long time. However, after it's completed, J just put it down and walked away to try other projects. It seems J didn't gain much joy during the process as I expected him to.

I began to question my intervention. The project I chose to work with him may be beyond his current cognitive development since it involves scientific knowledge such as balance. Therefore, everytime he came across problems, I need to step in to help him out. Vygotsky has suggested that there was a zone for proximal development for young children, as adults we need to offer a bridge for him to reach the next level. However, in my case, I didn't find a proper way to help him forward (Maybe there is a construct); what I did is to directly show him what do to and thus J's activeness in the process is weakened to a large degree. Therefore, when he finished the project, he didn't enjoy the fulfillment caused by conquering the cognitive puzzles.

Or even if I adopted a proper way to work with him, would it be better than just not intervention at all in the very first beginning and leaving him walking around. So there is a value judgement, I, as the adult, assumed that J's walking around is absent-mindless and purposeless and thus he could lose the opportunity of playing and learning. However, it could also be possible that J was trying to figure out his own way to experience this play event while my intervention rudely intruded his own world and interrupted this process which might be quite valuable.

Intervene or not?

The Value of Play

For the past week, I didn't do any "valuable" play. I got up late and grabbed some fastfood to eat. I was supposed to do some reading; however, I wasn't in the mood of study at all. Therefore, I decided to just relax and do whatever I want.

I opened my computer and surfed on the internet to see if there is anything interesting to watch. And then I found there is a new Chinese TV program called 'I am the singer' in which some singing stars are invited to compete singing. Honestly, it is an excellent TV program which soon attracted me and I almost lost the track of time. After I finished several periods of the program, I realized I almost spent the whole afternoon and evening watching it. I didn't feel relaxed as I expected to; rather I felt empty and guilty for wasting time. Later I called my boyfriend. Coincidentally at that time, he was also watching the same TV program. I talked to him about my guilty of wasting time watching entertainment program rather than doing exercise or watching TV programs of culture, art or history as a way of recreation. He could not understand my feeling. For him, it was really a relaxing period of time watching the show and thought I was thinking too much.

Based on our different reactions to the same type of play, I am wondering why I lost the joyfulness of the play? Is it really because of the frivolity of the play itself or due to my prejudgment of the value of the play? It seems that I need to go back to the pretty fundamental question of the value of play. For me, adult play is value based and should serve as some functions. For example, doing exercises or outdoor activities are benefit to health and thus can make us more efficient; and watching TV programs on culture, history and art can nurture the soul and cultivate the mind. While entertainment programs, for me, just satisfy our vulgarity. However, when I retrospect the play experiences of my childhood, there is no such distinct categorization of play as frivolous or valuable. At that time, all play experiences are joyful and valuable. Therefore, what potential factors could contribute to the evaluation of the value of play? Is the value of play socially constructed?

Babysitter One Day

Huan is the daughter of my friend Dr. Du. She is a sweat 7-year old girl full of curiosity. Everytime when Dr. Du needs to go to Indy to attend conference on Saturdays, she'll entrust Huan to my care. There is an old saying in China that "Even dogs will not like 7 or 8-year old kids", meaning that children at the age of 7 or 8 are most naughty and annoying; however, Huan is a lovable and sensible girl, although sometimes her insatiable curiosity really makes me unable to parry.

Normally when Huan is with me, I'll take her to Kroger or ride bicycle in the yard near my apartment, or just leave her alone watching cartoons on ipad which really makes me feel guilty. This time, I decide to take her to the movie theater to watch the newest animation "The Croods" which I already watched with my
roommate several days ago.

In the projection room, more than half of the audience are children together with their parents. And watching cartoons with those innocent kids are really sweat experience although sometimes a little bit noisy. They are so free to express their inner feelings and so easy to be touched. Immersed in the world of children's simplicity, I totally forgot about my stress and worries. When the movie is showing how much the dad missed his family and drew their pictures on the rock of the cave, I heard Huan crying. At first, I thought it was because her legs were caught in the chair and tried to help her out; and then Huan told me in a tearful voice that she cried because she was so touched by the scene. I was suddenly enlightened and took her in my arms to comfort her.

I enjoy being with kids. My roommate once asked me how to communicate with young children since for her they are different creatures coming from another star. I told her based on my own experiences that while you communicate with them, looking straight into their eyes, blocking the outside world and listening to what they are saying seriously. Playing with children is not just a relaxing but also a learning experiences. Their questions always remind me the simple beauty and miracles hidden in my daily life which I just ignored for a long time; their straightforwardness always makes me thinking why we adults make their life so complicated? Maybe we really need to play with young children more not because we need to carry out the obligations as parents or caregivers, but because we can learn the play "skills" from them.

Trip to Indy

I have visited Indy for several times, but mostly is to take planes. Last Saturday, One of my friend, Hong invited me and my roomate Zifei to Indy to have fun. At first, I was going to gently refuse this kind offer because of my burdensome workload; however, thinking of the good weather and delicious food, I decided to go!

Sitting in my friend's car, watching trees and cars passing by, enjoying the warmth of the sun and running away from the place I am familiar with and the stress of work and study, I really felt relaxed and congratulated on my wise decision of going out.

It is really interesting of three girls with poor sense of direction to drive. We wasted a lot of time in following the right direction and finally had our lunch at around 3 pm. We really enjoyed this authentic Chinese lunch and the quiet environment of this restaurant. After lunch, we went to the cross creek shopping center.

Zifei and I have been living together for almost a year; and we share plenty of commonalities including the dressing style and thus shopping together with Zifei is really fantastic experience. However, Hong's style differs a lot from ours. When Zifei and I were shopping, we noticed that Hong was a little bored; while when Hong was shopping, she felt the same way and quickly finished. At last, we end up having ice cream while talking in the mall which we all have interest in and had a really good time together.

Actually, this issue is really tricky. Not enjoying shopping with Hong doesn't mean I don't want to hang out with her. If I want to visit an exhibition rather than shopping, I would definitely go with Hong. This may be because our personality has so many layers and we have different interests. Therefore, our play also has multiple aspects. And this could be the reason why we need so many different friends, some of them sharing more commonalities with us while others sharing less. If we cannot find an appropriate person to play with, we would rather to  immerse ourselves in solitary play.

Another aspect of this issue is that our friendship is just on the first stage, we know but not quite familiar with each other. That's the reason why have to take care of others' feelings by concealing our true feelings. If we are close enough, I think those social nicety will give way to the true happiness in play. This is the natural way  of building relationship, from formality to familiarity.

Diamond and Alpes

Diamond and Alpes are two lovely dogs of my friend Anna from Taiwan. Diamond is a one-year old Corgi and Alpes is a three-month old Samoye, both are boys. Actually, before I knew them, I always love puppies because puppies are much more cutter. However, through interaction with the two lovely "big" dogs, I found they perform equally with puppies in terms of acting cute. They'll excitedly welcome me everytime I visit Anna. They jump on me, lick me and even kiss me (which I barely can resist, they are big and strong). I really love Aples who always acts like a naughty boy; while when he feels tried, he'll sit on my feet and rest,  which is really a sweet moment. For Alpes, I am not threatening and even make him feel safe and comfortable; For me, being accepted and trusted is an important source of my self-affirmation and happiness. I have similar experiences when I was working in a todder's room where I am welcomed by those innocent babies.

Diamond and Aples also served as a bridge to connect Anna and me. Anna strongly supports Taiwan independence while I, like most international students from mainland China, insist that Taiwan is a part of China. And political position is not a taboo between us and sometimes we can even jest with each other. This may because we are both straightforward person. On the one hand, we maintain our own position, on the other hand, we listen to and respect others. Regardless of this huge difference, we share a lot of commonalities except for loving dogs; we both love travelling, music, shopping and believe in love.

I strongly felt that sometimes, hatred and discrimination is aimed at an abstract concept, but not a concrete person who may share the same system of values with you.

My Play History

I am a playful person and I sincerely value play as a way to take inventory of the world, communicate with people and express our inner feelings. Looking back through my almost 30 years' life, I can see what have changed as well as what have remained in terms of my play.

When I was in my childhood, since I am the single child in my family (which is also the case for most of my friends), I played with my neighborhood peers. I was the leader of that small group of 7 or 8 children, including both boys and girls. Our parents gave us plenty of freedom to choose what we want to play and how to play, which I feel very grateful both then and now. Every winter or summer vacation, we would do a field trip to the countryside nearby with the money sponsored by our parents; we played badminton on the playground in our neighborhood, laughing, shouting and sweating; we played hide-and-seek in the "whole world" (meaning that you can run as far as you can) but ends up with the cat catchers giving up and going back home watching TV and the cats hanging around the neighborhood...

When I entered my adolescence, I preferred solitary play to group play.  At that time, I was always immersed in my own world. After school, I would ride bicycle to the book store to select my favorite music tape and listen to it again and again and again; Flew a kite on the top floor until the kite slowly shrank and finally vanished; And what I liked most at that time was organizing according to a certain pattern (e.g., date, color) while listening to the music. Since then, I became extremely obsessed over logic and orderliness.

When I entered into my twenties when is the rapid expansion of electronic information, I, as well as my classmates and friends, normally spend my free time on computer. I chat with my friends on line; I watch movies and TV dramas on line; I read e-books on Kindle; I listen to the online music and I even shop online instead of going outside to the mall... Yes, I have much more choices of recreation owing to the convenience and diversity that internet brings to me. Nevertheless, I feel guilty and emptiness from time to time. I kind of lose the joy and enrichment back to the time when the choices are quite limited. At that time, I always
repeatedly appreciated the book, music or movie until I finally memorize them. This externally tedious repetition is actually the essence that contributing the exquisiteness of our life.

To summarize, my personal history of my play is on the path from unconsciousness to self-awareness; from group play with limited choices to solitary play with ample choices; from pure happiness to value-based  pleasure. I may have lost the fun in the childhood that becomes extremely difficult to review as I grow up. But that might be the cost of growth.

The Cross-Stitch

Almost three years ago, I totally felt in love with cross-stitch. At that time, I bought plenty of materials for embroidery and seized every minute of my spare time to do needle-work. The thing I love this recreation most is that I can immediately immerse myself into this somewhat mechanical process due to its low starting point.

Cross-stitch is not like group games in which the enjoyment comes from communicating with people either through cooperation or competition. Rather, cross-stitch is a single game where only the self and the play object are involved. Personally, my enjoyment of this recreation may mainly be attributed to the flow and sense of achievement. Just as I mentioned above, cross-stitch is an easy-to-learn activity and once understanding the logic of it, people can rapidly absorb themselves into what they are doing. Therefore, my conclusion is that the easier the task is, the more likely that people are going to experience flow. However, just as Vygotsky mentioned that children's development is based on the zone of proximal development, I think with regard to the sense of achievement of adults, this is also the case. Therefore, after finishing several projects of easy patterns, my enjoyment elapsed and I have to pursue more complicated ones to maintain my enjoyment. However, here comes another problem. Since the one I chose (The Chinese-style Coat) to challenge myself is too complicated and this is really time-consuming and patience required, I quickly gave up and left it there for almost 3 years and just picked it up several days ago. After such a long period, I really didn't know where to start and I have to go through the "protocol" again, which is the most tough part and not fun at all. However, after you get through it, just enjoy!

I am really looking forward to completing the project I am working on now. And I am also thinking about the higher level of this recreation, that is no settled parttern exist, you have to create your own pattern to start with. In this case, imagination and creativity will be involved!