Schoolyard games? (renting, home, neighborhood)

[Nedibes]

I grew up in a mid-sized city in Michigan (similar to CR), and one of my cherished childhood memories is of playing clapping games, jump rope and chinese jump rope on the playground. I now volunteer at my children's school in a small town here in Iowa, and they literally play NONE of these games. They participate in "Jump Rope for Heart" but otherwise there are no jump ropes to be found (except maybe in PE). Of course all these were mainly girl games; a co-ed game that is absent is four-square, although that does require painting four squares on concrete somewhere in addition to a ball (they have balls and basketball hoops). I especially miss the clapping games--Miss Susie had a baby/tugboat, Dr. Knickerbocker, etc.--which require no equipment other than at least two sets of hands.

So my question is: Is this a generational thing, an Iowa thing, or a small town thing? The clapping games and jump rope rhymes especially were passed down from one generation of school girls to the next, not so much from mother-to-daughter, so I imagine anyone from my generation at my elementary school would remember the same ones I do, but they might easily differ in details from someone who attended a different elementary school at the same time; I expect there would be similarities but with evolutionary variations for people who attended the same school at different times. I guess it's possible that they would die out over time, but it seems more likely that they would just never take root in a particular school...I need to ask on the Michigan forums, too, I guess.

So, what's your experience? If you went to school in Iowa, were these games played? If you know school children in Iowa now, are they played there now? If you were born and raised in small-town Iowa, do you even know what I'm talking about (some of the girls here don't)?

Many thanks for your thoughts! I know this is a minor issue, but it's been bothering me .

[Lily0fthevalley]

Hi Nedibles -

Sorry you're not getting responses. Most of the Iowa CD posters are male, which maybe affects what kinds of questions get answered, and how.


From my observation of living in several different small towns in MN, IA, OK, AR and TX - the change in children's play activities is a generational thing rather than a regional thing.


I've read a variety of articles (which I can't cite verbatim now) saying that American kids are now spending more time indoors than outdoors. They "play" on computers and with electronic gaming more than they play outside.

It is really a pity that most kids don't get to play the old games in their daily lives. I do know from experience that when introduced to historic games kids really do have a lot of fun.

You might want to post this question in the Parenting forum or even in the Rural and Small Town living forum, and may get more answers and opinions there.

I appreciate your thinking about this!

[Nedibes]

Thanks for the ideas, LOtv. I did get more responses to a similar question in the Michigan thread, and the consensus seems to be that it is generational. I'm still a curious about just what caused the demise--I don't think it can be just that kids are playing computer games and watching TV instead of playing outside, because I remember these as almost exclusively school recess games, and that is still outside and electronics-free (at least at my kids' school). Basketball, tag, swings, and general running around and climbing are all still played enthusiastically. So it must also be that kids have just lost a taste for the games, maybe because attention spans have shortened or something. I wonder if clapping games could be a casualty of germaphobia? "Don't play that game--you might catch swine flu!"

Thanks again for your response!

[capitalcityguy]

I think a lot has to do with kids time now being scheduled (verses just coming home from school and playing with the neighborhood kids.).

We're trying to be careful not to overschedule our Kindergarten age daughter, but she already is involved in swimming, dance, and softball (not necessarily at the same time of the year) and pretty soon, soccer. When I was her age, I'm pretty confident there was ZERO schedule activities (with the exception of swimming lessons).

[ElleTea]

I grew up in Iowa and we were always jumping rope. We also played hopscotch. Later in elementary school and the big thing to play at recess was tetherball. We also had the traditional playground stuff like junglegyms, teeter toters, and merry-go-rounds. None of it was padded, it was all metal that would be often be hot to the touch, and if you fell off a swing you landed on the hard ground, not woodchips.

Not sure what you mean by clapping games, unless it is the type where you are playing a form of patty cake and saying a rhyme like "Cinderella dressed in yella went upstairs to kiss a fella, by mistake she kissed a snake, how many doctors did it take? 1,2,3,4,..." We did those.

[Chicago60614]

Generational. I grew up in the 80's and we did all of those games.