3-31-2010

3-31-2010

Observation Hours:
Friday 3/26: 10-11 & 2-3
Monday 3/29: 2-3
Tuesday 3/30: 1-3
Wednesday 3/31: 2-3

This week I was listening to the radio and heard an ad that I found to be extremely relevant to our class. The ad started with a mom and a dad talking about their play as children. The dad talked about when he was a kid he played war and used sticks for guns. The mom talked about how she built a castle out of tin cans. In hearing this it reminded me of how creative children are and how they can do make-believe play using any sort of materials they find. My first impression of the commercial was how they were going to say it was a good thing. Next thing I knew they started discussing how their daughter had drawn a picture of a princess castle and how she wanted to bring it to a company that turns children's drawings into real play houses. The girl called her parents "old school" for using sticks and cans to create and play. Now, the playhouse in itself isn't bad. It gets the kids outside and away from the television and computer and there can be a lot of creative make-believe play that occurs within and surrounding the playhouse. My problem with the commercial is that it undermines kids' creativity by implying that playing with cans and sticks wouldn't be fun or beneficial. I can remember playing in the woods by my house and building really cool forts with the sticks and things we found in nature. I also remember having a plastic play house at my babysitter's house that really wasn't as exciting as our forts in the woods. I think that although the business in itself isn't bad and is encouraging play in children, their ad really demonstrates how today's society doesn't give enough credit to the value of playing with found items. In my opinion, the mother, who built a castle out of cans would have shown an immense amount of creativity and would have learned a lot about construction and it would have been a great learning opportunity. Overall, this 60 second commercial from the radio really encouraged me to think about how things have changed when its comes to play and our views on it.