The Power of Play

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Ruta witing……I am a firm believer in the power of play. When playing simple games with kids, you show by your actions that you want to spend time with them. You like who they are. You share your time, your game pieces, and your turn to win. It’s also fun!

When we visit the Safe House each weekend, we usually bring donations or candy, and we play. The kids play checkers or a variation of it. The boys play volleyball or soccer. Volleyball is very popular; even the older women join in the pick-up games. They put down their laundry, play some volleyball, and then go back to their chores. Vasara has a following a girls (little girls through teenagers) jumping rope. Boy, some of them are really impressive jumpers! I enjoy the youngest kids the most - I read a picture book story or color or play with a small ball. Coloring is interesting because it is quickly apparent how much time the kids have spent in school. This does not necessarily correlate to their age. Some little kids color very bright, multi-colored pictures. Other kids feel awkward holding the crayons. Regardless, most are justly proud of their resulting pictures.

As previously, I express my deepest appreciation for friends who have donated the balls, crayons, coloring books, activity books, picture books, jump ropes, checkers, etc that we use for our weekend play sessions. At the end of our year we will leave the playthings behind, but in the meantime, we are grateful for enabling the joy of play!

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