All My Children

Sean has to be seen to be winning at whatever he plays. This is especially obvious when playing more organised games such as lotto or snakes and ladders. If the game takes a slightly negative turn, e.g. if Sean’s counter lands on a snake and he has to go down it, he will often end up by leaving the table and refusing to play on. However, while things are going in his favour, he is able to complete the game. Continue Reading »

For an indoor party it’s a good thing to think of balloons — they always look festive. So do the traditional decorations for a Christmas party of paper chains, holly and ivy, tinsel and glitter, stars, shining balls and bells. But you will want other ideas for parties with a particular theme. Continue Reading »

Elephant, Palm Tree, Boat

Description of game:

In this fast-paced game, children need to think quickly and work together to pantomime different objects.

Most suitable for:

1st through 4th graders Requirements:

• 5-10 minutes
• Any indoor or outdoor space big enough for a seated circle

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Pinning the Tail on Eeyore

Draw a large picture of Eeyore on a piece of stiff card or plywood. Colour him grey. Draw his tail separately on paper, or make it of string or wool or plaited raffia, with a tassel at the end.

Hang the picture on the wall and mark on it where the tail should go. Blindfold the players in turn, and give them the tail plus a drawing pin. As each pins the tail on Eeyore, mark round the pinpoint with a ring and put the player’s initials. The winner is the one who places the tail most accurately. Continue Reading »

Most adults find it easier to involve themselves directly in complex and adult games, like chess or baseball, than in play on simpler levels, such as stacking blocks or riding a hobbyhorse or toy car. Although the terms “play” and “game” are often used interchangeably, they are not identical in meaning. Rather, they refer to broadly distinguishable stages of development, with “play” relating to an earlier stage, “game” to a more mature one. Generally speaking, “play” refers to the young child’s activities characterized by freedom from all but personally imposed rules (which, unless the child is compulsive, can be changed at will); by freewheeling fantasy involvement; and by the absence of any goals outside the activity itself. Continue Reading »

How important such play is in establishing selfhood was demonstrated to me by an eight-year-old autistic girl. As often happens, the severe pathology of her case permitted observing a phenomenon also seen in normal behavior but as if it were under microscopic enlargement, or thrown into bold relief by a bright light. This girl had been virtually mute all her life. She completely rejected all efforts to reach her physically or verbally, and was unresponsive to all aspects of her environment. She resented all efforts to make contact with her; if one reached out to her actively, she responded with angry, terrified withdrawal. Continue Reading »

While just this or that poor impulse,

Which for once had play unstifled,

Seems the sole work of a life-time

That away the rest have trifled.

In the days when parents and children played the same games, they shared a virtually automatic understanding of the purposes of play: to be both meaningful and enjoyable. This is still true concerning the most primitive, earliest, and hence most important play, that of the infant—and woe unto the child if it is not.

When a baby tosses a rattle out of his crib and his mother hands it back to him, in their moment of mutual delight the mother hardly notices the fact that in this new achievement, her infant is asking himself some very important questions: “Can I influence my objective environment without dire consequences to myself? Can I safely assert my will and manipulate objects without suffering for it? Can I rid myself of something that annoys me? Can I relinquish control of my belongings temporarily without losing them altogether?” Continue Reading »

Chess was used as a metaphor for human relations. Here I would like to stress that this, the most intellectual, complex, and refined of all games, from which chance is entirely eliminated, is essentially a war game. In chess the fighting spirit, without which success is not possible, must be sublimated to the utmost degree; otherwise it interferes with the high measure of concentration, planning, and foresight which are at all times necessary. Continue Reading »

All this changes the instant the game gets started. Then the friends and cooperators become competitors who feel they have to show themselves superior to those who only a moment before were their equals. This makes them feel insecure and tense, where before they had been secure and relaxed. Now not only do they wish to defeat those who were so recently their comrades and friends, but even the members of one’s own team tend to be critical when a player does not live up to expectations (which are often unreasonably high because of the wish that their team should be victorious). Continue Reading »

Piaget stresses the importance of the child’s learning the rules of the game in the process of socialization because he must become able to control himself in order to do so, controlling most of all his tendency to act aggressively to gain his goals. Only then can he enjoy the continuous back-and-forth interaction with others that is involved in playing games with partners who simultaneously are also opponents. Continue Reading »