As I sit here and write my kids are playing with their cousins Emily and Jake. I can’t help but notice what a drastic change comes over their play when they have this particular company. It takes on a completely different quality, becoming both more active and more giggly. Em and Jake are 13 and 12, old enough to have ideas and plans and better things to do than play with a 6 and 4 year old- or at least that is what pop culture tells us. But there is nothing more fun to watch than these teens playing… I mean really playing. Instead of sitting in front of the tube or asking when they can go to the mall both of them are currently involved in an elaborate chasing game with the kids.

Their are pillows strewn about the room, playsilks draped on chairs, a bunny hopping under the couch to escape the running feet all around. It’s unbounded excitement and fun, even though their was an offer of popcorn and a movie. Now of course my own kids can’t keep their clothes on in this heat, so their are little tighty-whitey tushes all over the place! And now they are hiding Em’s shorts from her since she has on a dress-length T-shirt.

This game has a quality though that makes me stop and take notice. It is the same quality that I see each time Ema and Jake come to play here, it’s the details. The older kids have a way to incorporate details of story and comedy into every minute of their visit. The motion in the room hardly stops…and neither do the detailed discussions of who is what character and what they can plot to do next.

The reason it’s 9 pm and I’m not putting a stop to it is that even though it distrupt the rhythm of the night and it winds the kids up before bed, it adds something to their play toolbox. A tool that they may not have found until much much later with out “big kids”.

I’m reminded now of the richness my own childhood received because my “big kids” were Em and Jake’s fathers. They played football with me (I was the ball), taught me how to make elaborate leaf houses, showed me what is was to be big and still know how to play.

I hope my own kids keep this type of play in their lives forever, and this is a great example for them, bedtime postponment and all.

~jo

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