Play

Quotes:

If animals play, this is because play is useful in the struggle for survival; because play practices and so perfects the skills needed in adult life-------- Susanna Miller

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.------Plato    

I chose those two pictures as I loved pretend play when I was a child. My parents were very supportive, as when they noticed that I loved doing role play, they bought me many toys so that I can pretend to be various roles at home. I think pretend play had a very substantial influence on me. During the pretend play, I beams more and more familiar with different roles of people in my life, and I tried to talk and to act the way that they did, and I became to dream of what I would like to be when I grow up. I thought about being a teacher, and I am a teacher now. My parents did not only give me the toys, they also played with me together, especially my mom. She played with me to cook for the bear, and to be my student when I wanted to be the teacher at home. It was just so much fun. Whenever I think of those moment, I want to give my mom a big hug. I loved my childhood.

Children today they play more indoors than outdoors comparing the childhood that I had. I played outdoors a lot, but children today they prefer to sit and play more video games and watch TV. I should say this is the biggest difference than my childhood. I did not have a chance to watch TV until I was 8 years old, as we did not have TV at home before I was 8. However, I find out that children today they still love to play pretend play, the blocks and the stuffed animals. I believe as long as parents and the educators have a good modeling for children , they still like to play the traditional games and talk to their peers in the play.

I hope children can have more opportunities to explore on their own and I hope board games can be well-introduced to children as well. I think board games can help children solve the problems in the future in their real life.

I agree with most educators that play can have a long-term influence on a person's life. Children can develop their cognitive and social skills through play, and their motor skills can be enhanced in the play as well. All those skills can make a person success in their later life, so I should say meaningful and well-moniored play should be encouraged. 

The relationships that I currently have

I remember the first year of working at my current school. It was my first job and first real working experience. I had a hard class in grade two to start with as well. My partner teacher Kim, she was an experienced teacher and she was very patient and supportive during our three years partnership. That was meaningful to me, as she is an American teacher and she introduced the unique way of teaching that she has to me. I loved it. I still think that I was lucky to start my teaching career with her. I learned many teaching skills, ideas, philosophies from her, which has the long term influence on me. I am working with kindergarden children right now, and she is working with grade three in middle east. We still keep in touch with each other by facebook and emails. She keeps me refreshed by her  new experiences and tryouts. I told her that I enjoy working with little children, and she is positive about it and gives me a long name list of the artists that she considers would be helpful to me in my teaching. I do appreciate the relationship with her, and the friendship that we build up between us.

I have a friend for nearly twenty years. We are still very close to each other. We accompany each other to go through the difficulties in our lives and share the happy moment together too. I always feel like that friendship is something different from the family relationship. It is essential and important in my life. I do not need one hundred friends that I do not know who to talk to when I have a hard time, but I need a true friend that I know I can trust and turn to. In this relationship I learn how to treat other people and respect the other’s decision, be positive to the friends.

I married last year, and my husband is supportive for my working and studying. We have a couple of same hobbies, like watching movies and traveling. I enjoy the life together with him so far and I am looking forward to the future too.

My parents are the other relationship that I would like to address here as they are my role models for a long time. I can be myself now because they had the special attitude to me when I was a little girl. They are traditional Chinese people, but they are not the traditional Chinese parents. I feel happy, free and democratic at home. I have my rights and they respect it as well. I think that is really important for me when I grow up as an adult now.