Promoting Traditional Games

Pamela Chan, M.Ed/Editorial

Every February, the Nikkei National Museum and Culture Centre holds its annual family games day, featuring traditional Japanese heritage games such as toys, origami and a rock-paper-scissors tournament. It is a wonderful celebration of the many charming and enjoyable traditional games found in Japan. And it’s an opportunity for youth in the region to learn about games that may be new to them. Were you fortunate enough to experience traditional games during your childhood? (The word “traditional” refers to games from cultures all over the world.) Perhaps they were street games or games that you played indoors. During my time as a teacher in the classroom, and as a mother of my twins, I have tried to provide opportunities for youth to learn about traditional games from around the world.

A company in the UK that specializes in designing markings for playgrounds has posted rules and descriptions of 51 outdoor playground games. This is an example of a useful starting point that can be a helpful resource for parents and teachers looking for information about traditional outdoor games. Here in Canada, we have seen people like Canadian sportswoman and Olympian Silken Lauman supporting the Right to Play initiative. Silken shared her story about pursuing opportunities for unstructured play with her children and the children in her family’s neighbourhood.

” I’ve always been a believer in play being a foundational activity that promotes a lifelong love of movement. So I wasn’t interested in getting them into organized sports so much when they were young. We did all sorts of things from driveway road hockey to play in the park. I used to help organize “Play in the Park” nights in our community. We sent flyers around our neighborhood to say we would be at the park on Monday evenings, and that everyone was free to come and play. We would often have 30-40 kids out on a Monday night.”

Laumann says that the solution to childhood obesity is simple: play. It’s not hard to believe that getting outside and using your gross motor skills while playing aerobic intensive games is a win-win for children who might otherwise be sitting indoors.

“The schoolyard games have been lost. Kids don’t know how to play four-square, a lot of people don’t know how to play hopscotch,” says Silken Laumann, who over the next couple of weeks will be conducting sessions across the country instructing parents on the rules of the games most of them played as children.” (Bringing Back the Fun, April, 2006, National Post).

The song Where Do the Children Play?, from Yusuf/Cat Steven’s 1970 album Tea for the Tillerman, is an environmentally focussed and insightful reminder that municipalities, advocacy groups and local citizens all play a role in ensuring that children have the opportunity to be outside in protected and pollution-free environments. As a lifelong fan of Yusuf/Cat Stevens since I could play his songs and put on earphones myself at the age of three, I couldn’t write about outdoor play without referencing his song. Especially as I realize it may be new to younger generations.

Society is constantly evolving and changing. Our neighbourhoods – and how children interact in them – is different from when we were young. Fourteen years ago, the New York Times published an article suggesting that unstructured playtime is over.

“One consequence of these changes is the disappearance of what child-development experts call “the culture of childhood.” This culture, which is to be found all over the world, was best documented in its English-language form by the British folklorists Peter and Iona Opie in the 1950s. They cataloged the songs, riddles, jibes and incantations (“step on a crack, break your mother’s back”) that were passed on by oral tradition. Games like marbles, hopscotch and hide and seek date back hundreds of years. The children of each generation adapted these games to their own circumstances.”

The Opie’s book makes for a fascinating and useful read. If you would like to order a copy, check out the hardbound copies in the used section of Amazon.ca, or wherever you source out used books.

Here are some ways to incorporate traditional games into your family life:

When you have the opportunity to travel in your country or elsewhere, watch for evidence of traditional outdoor and indoor games and game material. Make a special effort to document the information you find, or even bring back information or material related to traditional games from your community or other communities and countries.
Seek out images of children playing games in other countries and show them to your child.
Scour yard sales and school fairs for old fashioned, traditional games or simple games from your childhood. You never know what you will find.
Try to spend time every week encouraging your child to engage in simple, traditional games such as skipping, marbles, cards games, street/yard games or board games.
Read about New to You games in online or paper-based resources.
If you are a teacher, try to incorporate new games into your curriculum every year.
Watch for opportunities for your family to take part in community events that feature traditional games. Events might be sponsored by a local museum of community centre, or a community group related to a specific demographic. Here is an example of a video resource about the Rolling Buffalo game, presented by Heritage Park in Calgary.
Check out resources provided about indigenous games from the Hero in You Project website. Here is a lesson plan for youth in grades 4 to 7.
Ask your child’s teacher and school principal how the school is supporting an interest in traditional indoor and outdoor games.
Check out this list of interesting YouTube videos about traditional games from around the world.
Ask your school parent council to support visits to the school (classrooms and assemblies) from traditional games specialists.
There is an almost endless supply of resources online about traditional games for children, since material is added every month. As an example, here is a resource page about traditional indigenous games from Australia. You can search for games based on the age of your child or students. The video below shows how these types of games often require simple supplies – eg one ball – and are ideal for outdoor play.
If you are a grandparent, aunt or uncle, use the time you have with the youth in your life to provide opportunities for the child to experience games that are traditional to your family, your community or to cultures from around the world.

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