Playing for all he’s worth
I’ve been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to play with my youngest grandson for the past five days. He’s just three years old and he uses as many of his hours as possible in play. Most of those hours were spent with me while mother and grandmother had time for other things.
It didn’t take long for me to lose many decades of structured life as I became his partner in play. He was a good teacher and I was his willing student. And in the process of shared play, a bond of trust was built that allowed me to become the leader and use my life experience to guide the play to the practice of new skills and the gaining of new knowledge.
The greatest gift that my grandson gave me was time spent out of my head. For the time he was here in my home, I spent time on little things such as building towers with blocks, racing and crashing toy cars, doing and re-doing jigsaw puzzles, playing in the snow, going for walks and sled rides, reading story books and wrestling that involved a lot of tickling. It was a time for imagination to run wild and free, a time for male bonding, mentoring, modelling and simply being “pépére.”
