If you’ve known me for a while, you know how passionate I am about the importance of play. Not just for children, but for all of us. Back in 2009, I was in my last semester at University of Oklahoma’s College of Liberal Studies (their online bachelor degree program) and had to write a 30-50 page research paper on a topic. It was August and I wasn’t sure yet what I wanted to write about and I needed to submit my topic soon. I went to a child care conference where I attended a breakout session led by Dr. Barbara Sorrels (who is amazing by the way but that’s another post for another day). Anyway, she talked about a new book that had just come out by Dr. Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan. The book was called: “Play: How it shapes the brain, opens the mind, and invigorates the soul”. I checked out the book from the OU library and simply devoured it. If you like to read, I highly recommend it. It is easy to read and very clearly explains the relationship of play and learning and play and life. Anyway, reading that book inspired me to choose play as my research topic and that fall I wrote a 30 page paper about play.
Today I want to ask you: How do you play as an adult? For me, it’s usually reading. I love to get lost in a good fiction book. I’ve been that way for as long as I can remember.