Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Games Children Play

Thanks Beverly for a wonderful challenge theme!
I have been thinking about this theme for a few days.  My original idea was a pictorial quilt, with a child building a sandcastle on the beach.  I think I will still make that quilt, but perhaps not for this challenge.
So, I started thinking about games children play - traditional games - and hunted around the net.  I found these


Skipping, dolls, and hobby horses.  (these images are copyright free).  All of them would make beautiful quilts, but as I was thinking today, I asked my self
"Why do children play games?"
And I realised that this theme could could even be a series and be taken a lot further.
When I was a child, and when my mother was a child, games and the toys we played them with served a purpose.  We played them to learn about life, about responsibilities (eg dolls), about achievement and persistence (eg skipping), about practising things we might do as adults (eg hobby horse) or about working together in a community (eg games with rules, like chinese whispers).
We were not aware that that was why we played games, but all the time we were practising to be adults.
What does this mean for many children today who no longer play with dolls, or trucks, or skipping ropes?  Will it make a difference to how they are as adults?.  A BBC study says that children are integrating  modern technology into playground games and that playing games is as alive as ever, and instead of playing  cowboys and indians,  they play  Dr Who and the daleks or Who wants to be a millionaire
Now, of course, I need to decide what I want to say and work out how to arrange these ideas into a quilt.
mmmm.....

3 comments:

  1. There are so many directions one can take with this challenge - my biggest challenge is probably going to be deciding which way to go! I too started thinking about the games children play, and was thinking along the more traditional lines as well, but I've still not finalized anything. I guess kids play will always be a way of preparing for the rest of their lives, but it does look so much different these days then when we (at least I!) was a child! But then the world is a very different place now, too!

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  2. Well, that surely gave us a lot of food for thought!! Thank you, Vicki.

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  3. I’m going down memory lane! Thanks for reminding me of some lovely childhood moments!

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