When I was growing up, skipping was still quite cool – well, in primary school anyway! It’s probably not allowed now in case a skipping little girl gets caught up in the rope and throttles herself!
Anyway, every break time we would get out the big, long skipping rope and skip. We could even skip with two ropes being swung in opposite directions – if that makes any sense!
There was also this toy that I begged for months to be able to get – they were so cool at the time! I can’t remember what they were called, or even what happened to mine, but they were big balls with a sort of disc thing around the middle. Basically, you stood on the disc bit and bounced up and down – sort of a pogo ball! It was so cool, and if you didn’t have one then you really weren’t worth knowing! Maybe it was just my school…!
How cool is that – I found one for you! Mine was a yellow ball with a black disc.
I just found this site which reminded me of a lot of the toys that I had growing up in the 80’s – I even recognised some of the glow worms – I had totally forgotten about them! I also had My Little Ponies and She’Ra toys!
I played with Sindy’s a lot – in those days they were much better than Barbies. My cousins had Action Men – they were a bit the worse for wear though! One of them had his foot held on by some string wrapped around it! Obviously, my Sindys and their Action Men were married!
The games I played with my friends were pretty normal – judging by what isla says they still play the same sort of things now – mummies and daddies, playing teacher etc! Also, in France they still do hopscotch (called La Marelle here) – I have no idea if they still do that in UK or not. Probably not – hopping’s probably banned as a dangerous sport! I do know that in a lot of places in UK, playing conkers is banned – ridiculous!
NB. Photograph not my own work
Not banking on it
1 day ago
2 comments:
What HAS changed here is the amount of time children spend with each other. Partly this is because some (lots of?) parents think that the outside world is too dangerous for their children, and partly due to technology. My 3 year old is already able on the laptop and can find games to play there, and my 7 year old spends quite a lot of time on his Wii or PS2.
Here's the latest change at our local swimming pool - a large notice announcing in the changing room -
IT IS PROHIBITED FOR CHILDREN TO BE NAKED IN THESE CHANGING ROOMS AND SHOWERS AT ANY TIME. PLEASE USE THE CHANGING CUBICLES AT ALL TIMES FOR DRESSING/UNDRESSING.
What do you think of that? Or perhaps you think it's a good thing?
I don't know about the swimming pool thing - I mean, when I was young and went swimming, the changing rooms were always separate, with cubicles, so it wasn't an issue.
As for children being able to play outside, I'm not sure what my attitude would be if I lived in a city either here on France, or in UK. I'm very lucky because we live in a very rural area, have a big garden and almost 0% crime!
My daughter plays outside a huge amount of the time, weather permitting, and when she's inside she plays with toys, does jigsaws, drawings and she also watches dvd's and plays her Nintendo DS. I think it's just a matter of balance.
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