childhood
September 2008 
What imaginary worlds did you create as a child?
Posted on Feb 17th, 2008
by 
~C4Chaos
~C4Chaos
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for February 17, 2008:
I played Dungeons & Dragons with my friends. I was a thief killed by a vampire. I was a fighter-Elf killed by a dragon. I was a Samurai in the Oriental Adventures.
A piece of paper, a roll of dice and active collective imagination were as effective as a Playstation.
A piece of paper, a roll of dice and active collective imagination were as effective as a Playstation.
Access: Public
Though I could never get into playing it myself, I found Dungeons and Dragons a fabulous game! That game was for the most imaginative ones! (you!)
I copped out and watched the movie with Tom Hanks in it (LOL, he must've been like 17)
ALL the real games are better than video games! It hones your creativity and imagination!
Robin Marantz Henig wrote a great piece about this very topic in The New York Times called “Taking Play Seriously.” Here is a small excerpt:
“Brown called play part of the ‘‘developmental sequencing of becoming a human primate. If you look at what produces learning and memory and well-being, play is as fundamental as any other aspect of life, including sleep and dreams.’’
The message seemed to resonate with audience members, who asked anxious questions about what seemed to be the loss of play in their children’s lives. Their concern came, no doubt, from the recent deluge of eulogies to play . Educators fret that school officials are hacking away at recess to make room for an increasingly crammed curriculum. Psychologists complain that overscheduled kids have no time left for the real business of childhood: idle, creative, unstructured free play. Public health officials link insufficient playtime to a rise in childhood obesity. Parents bemoan the fact that kids don’t play the way they themselves did — or think they did. And everyone seems to worry that without the chance to play stickball or hopscotch out on the street, to play with dolls on the kitchen floor or climb trees in the woods, today’s children are missing out on something essential.”
thanks for the heads up on that article: Taking Play Seriously.
very informative!
~C
i concur. my childhood was filled with outdoor play of all kinds with my friends as well as indoor, endless games of monopoly, Life, and pretending… now in order for my daughter to play with her friends i have to go through extraordinary efforts to arrange “play-dates”. i have always made sure my children had lots of time to dream, play imaginary games like lego (my son), and read, but there was never enough time with friends… now my teens are catching up on all those lost social hours :) and my daughter hangs out on neopets