Playing Outside

Their mom is trying to clean the house right now and to be better organized, so the kids are staying outside more.  When I nanny, I love to play outside and let the 14 month old run around with his two siblings in the dirt.  The older siblings are very computer savvy and play Minecraft, Wizard101 and tons of youtube videos.


I remember when I was a child I spend almost every moment outside to escape to my own worlds separate from the abuse I was experiencing.  I made roller coasters our of holes and a wagon, climbed towers to fight monsters, imagined kingdoms, sat in the tall backyard grass watching the bugs crawl all around me.  I didn't have safe play structures, but tons of imagination brimming out onto the surrounding earth; creating a world of creative wonder.


Seeing this now in the children I nanny makes me want to play, create and imagine all over again.  I color with the chalk, build towers out of sand, act like crazy restaurant patrons all for the sake of play.


There is a certain magick in childlike play, it draws you down to an innocence lost underneath the realities of life like bills, school, cleaning your house, all these things wash away play.


My childhood was happy for a part, but my happiness was shaky because my mother would use my emotions to further her own insane agenda.  What was her agenda?  Who knows, I think she was just in so much pain she doesn't even know why she was angry.  There was always a cost for our happiness and it was not a fair childhood.


It is so important for children to play outside in the sunshine and develop a sensory for the earth around them.  I even play video games sometimes, but I much rather be sitting outside under the sunlight watering my plants.


This is why I like to play outside with the children, I'm redoing my childhood.  I know I can never deny what happened to me, even though my mother will, but I can choose to heal it.


What activities do you do with your children outside?