I thoroughly enjoyed today's movie depicting different play environments and perceptions of play. I found it interesting and thought provoking as well. The thing that really got to me was the difference in urban kids vs. suburban kids in the way that they approached the city project. Moreover, I was amused by how kids explained their play experience. The kids from the island described the idea of play at such a high level using concepts that an average 10 year old would not think of identifying play with. The movie truly exposed the importance of play. The weekly readings are also interesting, but I feel as though this movie really set the tone of play due to the fact we were witnessing students engage in it and comparing different environments. In addition, I believe that parents are a part of the problem when it comes to lack of play, especially in terms of suburban kids. Suburban kids seem to be overscheduled and pushed too much, in terms of academic performance at such a young age when they should be experiencing play in a nonstructured environment. Moreover, these children are also the same children spending way too much time on video games and television while they should be playing outside. Play is truly a way for a student to learn about themselves and about the world around them in a non-forced approach. Play is so important and so many people are missing the boat on understanding the impact of play. We, as future educators and possible parents, need to reiterate the importance of play and make sure to enforce it ourselves. I also noticed how parents need to relax and let their children learn based on their own terms and experience life through play, without placing to many rules and restrictions on when, where, and how they can play.

This past weekend I worked at the YMCA in the youth swimming program. This week was the last session of a seven week program; therefore, it was 45 minutes of free time. It was extremely interesting to observe these particular children, ages 6-10, interact with one another in an alternative setting, a pool. Some children were extremely physical with their play, hanging all over one another, and hitting each other with toys, splashing around violently and being extremely loud. One particular class there were issues that derived from the rough play, such as a child being injured, their feelings hurt because their toy was taken, etc. Two children that I especially kept an eye, a boy and a girl, at first I thought they were brother and sister due to the way that they were interacting with one another, more rough play rather than subtle play. The play was extremely rough and the girl was hanging all over the boy in the water, flailing her arms all over the place, and hitting the boy with either a noodle or a plastic swim toy. I thought for sure one of the children was going to get injured; yet, it never got to that point. They were warned to an extent to be a little more gentle but they never really lightened up their play. I was shocked that for 45 minutes straight of this kind of play neither child got mad at the other, or frustrated with how the play was going. I feel as though there are few children that could engage in this kind of play without complaining about one another. Overall, I was amused to watch these children interact with each other in an alternative play setting.

I would like to reflect on my visit to Aldo this past Monday. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it is most definitely different than the traditional classroom. I was most entertained by the creativity used within a lot of the teaching tactics. For instance, as we observed the students make journal entries they were able to use clothespins decorated as astronauts, reminding the students to put spaces in between all of their words, using the "spacers." In addition, the teacher did not correct any of the work done by the students. She gave them a certain amount of time for an entry without focusing on too many specifics. Moreover, the students did not have to write with pencil which I found astounding, mostly because, I never gave much thought to changing up such a simple concept. The students were allowed to write with markers making the experience all that more interesting and fun. Overall, I learned a lot from my time there and look forward to going back.