I can remember my mum sharing with us the game of ‘Jacks’ where you have the little ‘jacks’ or stones and you have to bounce the ball, flip the jacks and catch everything – I can’t remember it very well as I was never very good at it! I also remember skipping games and rhymes but my children are too small for that yet but maybe when they are a bit bigger it will interest them. At the moment we share a lot of songs and stories.

On boy, this is what I miss. I used to play with ants, rubber seeds, etc. My friend will be compiling Asian traditional games into a book. This is great as it brings back the memory and preserve the game.

For me in America, raising children geographically close to where I myself grew up, the play of children is very different for children in their generation compared to mine. I think the major shift is from, in my childhood, children being pushed outside to play unsupervised with the kids in the neighborhood. The mothers used to stay indoors and do their housework and cooking and whatever, leaving us to find our own play and to direct our own play. We were called in at dinner time and often kicked back outside after dinner to play even more. We made up our own games and played traditional games (hopscotch, tag, etc.) We also had very few outside classes, such as perhaps Little League for my brother only starting at age 11, a short stint with gymnastics for me in my preschool years and also, Brownies and Girl Scouts.

Nowadays in my area the majority of children’s free time is spent around paid-for classes and sports. Organized sports start really, at birth (Gymboree) and progressing to Gymnastics (age 2, 3 and up). Little League and AYSO Soccer starts at age 4. Some parents feel they are building a college resume starting at babyhood, by loading their kids with all these extra-curricular activities.

The kids are also supervised when outside, out of a fear that the child will have an accident and get injured, or fear of kidnapping (spawned by the news media). Children are not “kicked out” to play with neighbors for hours on end anymore. We parents are supposed to be following them around outside to make sure they are okay/safe, if not telling them what to do, what to play and how. The neighbor kids are around less, so when mine are outside often we are the only children outside, despite the fact that about 20 children live in our neighborhood. due to increased organized sports and increased number of extra-curricular’s. Lastly, kids do more homework now including in Kindergarten.

When kids are with each other, some are also not self-motivated to direct their own play. Some children come to me asking me to organize activities for them. I find that so odd. I say, “Go find something to play with”. Playdates at my house are not like attending a class where I am going to move the kids from activity to activity, craft project to whatever other adult-directed activity!

I won’t even get into the discussion about video games and computer time. I am one of the “odd” parents whose family doesn’t own a video game console and who doesn’t allow the children to play games on the computer much either. TV viewing screen time is limited as well.