Rain, Rain Go Away

There was a heavy downpour yesterday morning - the day that we could have seen a small part of the solar eclipse, if it weren’t for the clouds and rain. But the children were not as concerned about not seeing the eclipse as they were about not being able to play in the playground. They must have sung, “Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day. Little children want to play.” To their joy the rain did stop and the children were out playing.



Such is childhood where play is an integral part of their simple, naive lives. It is easy to identify sick children apart from their high temperature. When a child who is so active and likes to play suddenly keeps quiet and unwilling to play, that is when you can tell that he is sick without even the need of a thermometer.



Children learn to give and take during play time. They learn social interaction. They learn what is socially acceptable and what is not. They learn who are the leaders and who are the followers in their group of friends. They learn to express themselves using words they have learned in class or words they hear from their teachers and parents and other adults. We are talking about early verbal language development here. Play is their social network. Older children, young adults and older adults use Facebook and Twitter for their online social network. Young children use play.

So let the children play.