Children's Pastime Today and Yesterday

Children’s Pastimes Today and Yesterday

Children’s pastimes have evolved greatly over the decades. Children today tend to stay inside with electronic devices that teach, entertain, and control them. These games tend to mesmerize children with their graphics, skill levels, and interactive abilities. However, children of the past seemed to get out and about more, exerting themselves physically by riding their bikes around the neighborhood or playing a pick up game of football. They did not have technological gadgets to do their thinking for them. Today’s kids live such fast paced lifestyles that it is often hard for them to get outside and enjoy the scenery that kids in the past did on a daily basis.

Climbing trees, making forts in the woods or even going to the pond to catch tadpoles were some of the activities that got kids outside and moving around. Catching tadpoles even turned into a science lesson by allowing children to watch the tadpoles grow into toad frogs. Today’s children have the same options, but it is harder for them to find a clean and safe pond to play in or a nice old oak tree with sturdy branches to climb. It is possible that they might be able to do it given the right technology, by way of a game, on their computer, but where is the fun in that (physically speaking, of course)?

Strolling down the streets of any given neighborhood in the past, you could see a group of kids playing marbles or hopscotch. They might even sit on the porch and play dominoes or a game of Monopoly. Nowadays you can play Monopoly by simply going through the drive thru at McDonald’s. Long trips would have children playing games of “I Spy” and “Punch Bug”. Today’s children have unlimited choices for many different kinds of portable gaming systems and DVD players. These devices make it extremely hard to convince the kids to put them down and get outside to enjoy the fresh air. Riding in the car for any extended period of time now means a movie in the...