I wish there were more places and opportunities for adults to indulge in recess activities that they participated in as children.
I don't know why we have to abandon these fun things as we become older. As adults, we often feel a need to "get to the gym" when we want physical activities in our lives and some of us will step out of the gym to go for walks once in awhile, but I miss these activities that I often played when younger: I truly do not believe that the activities below have to only be activities for grade school children.
Four Square
Handball
Tetherball
Kickball
Softball
Paddleball (the sport, like Racquetball)
Dodgeball
Hopscotch
Hide-and-Seek
Water Balloon Fights
Tag / Freeze Tag / Hospital
Four Corners
Jump rope /Chinese Jump Rope (totally remember this!) / Double Dutch
Cake Walk (during special events)
Relay Racing
and much more.
I have to jog my memory for most of the other games I played as a kid.
Kids would come back in after lunch and morning recess very sweaty and tired. These games were an awesome way to work out naturally and it was pure fun. No one thought about "getting exercise" or "burning calories" or anything of the sort. It was just about getting out and enjoying ourselves out on the "blacktop".
I definitely think this is missing in adulthood. The absence of activities like these limits us to unnatural ways of working out that often feel like monotonous, boring and tiresome obligatory chores. I think if we participated in more natural ways to be active, we'd see a great change in the way we define and fall into being fit as grownups. I certainly still like going to gym once in awhile but I really ache for very organic activities most of the time. It's just more intuitive and I'd feel much more inspired to get out and do something physical regularly.
I also think that such games always sparked creativity and imagination. Kids would make up rules to some of these traditional childhood games or create new games period. I certainly remember I did. LOL
For example, I made up my own techniques in handball. One technique was called "buttercup". The hit would involve "getting" the ball at the right time after the other person hit it against the wall, and bouncing it three times with one hand before hitting it back against the wall for the other person to hit again. You'd score more points this way if the game was being based on a point system. Soon I had many other kids on the playground talking about the buttercup move. LOL It became a standard for some games settings/rules although very few knew I started it. Others created their own rules and hits too.
I would also play hours by myself with tetherball and handball, because these could and would be solitary games too. I loved every minute of this and I certainly miss it.
I think it would be awesome to start an "adult recess" club like this someday where groups of people could join up and play these games in a dedicated areas often.
I certainly feel that as adults we need to continue the glory of recess games and activities.
