People at Play Archive

It feels so long ago when I last wrote about domestic hobbies as play. It was indeed a different world—if we told our past selves what our lives look like now, we wouldn’t believe ourselves.
But what was true then is still true today: the calm attained when lost in the flow of an activity like sewing or knitting is a powerful and addictive, and a welcome respite from daily worries. The finished products of our craft are a testimony to […]

Continue Reading about Domestic Hobbies: Flattening the Curve from Home Published on:
April 20, 2020

In 2018, the toy industry saw a significant increase in toys related to potty humor. Some critics speculated that this was based on the popularity of the smiling poop emoji on the iPhone, while others associated the trend with the new generation of parents raised on South Park’s Mr. Hankey, The Simpsons, and Family Guy. Lawrence Cohen, Ph.D., author of Playful Parenting, noted that the sensory experience of using the bathroom combined with the “hush-hush privacy and secrecy” creates the […]

Continue Reading about Toy Fair 2020: Things That Make You Go Eww Published on:
April 16, 2020

Mary Valentine
The Strong Museum Trustee
 
When I was a kid, Sundays were my favorite day of the week, because my dad was home (he worked Monday through Saturday) and we got to play the card game Michigan.
Growing up in a small town in New York State’s Hudson Valley, we didn’t have a lot of money for toys and games. My brother and I would amuse ourselves with playing dodge ball in front of our house on Lafayette Avenue or […]

Continue Reading about Michigan in New York Published on:
April 14, 2020

In these days of lockdowns and social distancing, resourcefulness has become a watchword in so many facets of our lives. All of us are working to become a little more adept at making the most of what’s immediately at hand in our homes. Fortunately, when it comes to play, sometimes the primary raw material turns out to be ingenuity—something that doesn’t require a trip to the store or an online purchase.

Thinking back to activities from my childhood, it’s kind of […]

Continue Reading about Playing with Almost Nothing Published on:
April 8, 2020

You look up from your work email after hearing muffled giggles and the sounds of shuffling furniture, with a vague feeling that every single blanket in your house is being dragged to a central location. Don’t be alarmed, though—it’s just someone building a blanket fort!
During a trip to Tennessee earlier this year, my friend’s five-year-old daughter Christie and I spent a morning crafting an ultra-cozy blanket fort. We borrowed all the chairs from the kitchen, shoved aside a large coffee […]

Continue Reading about A Soft Spot for Blanket Forts Published on:
April 6, 2020

January brought the start of a new year and also the start of a new project. I began to inventory and process the Mayfair Games archival materials that were donated to The Strong museum in 2017. In an effort to learn more about the company, I started reading about the board games, card games, and role-playing games it produced. I quickly learned that Settlers of Catan, one of Mayfair Games’ most recognizable titles, not only ranks as an awesome game, […]

Continue Reading about Building a Settlement: German-style Games in North America Published on:
April 2, 2020

With many of us spending more time at home right now, it’s likely that our screen time—time spent in front of our televisions, laptops, tablets, smart phones, etc.— has increased a bit.
For those of us who grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the term “screen time” wasn’t a thing yet. In homes across the country, parents worked and entrusted many of us kids to look after ourselves for a couple hours after school, eventually earning […]

Continue Reading about Screen Time…Then and Now Published on:
March 31, 2020

Spending most of my time at home with my young children has revealed that I’m not especially innovative when it comes to crafts. Thankfully, there are people willing to experiment with materials to develop activity kits and craft ideas for kids. Their work has resulted in some notable successes, as well as a few questionable developments over the years.
In 1909, Alfred Carlton Gilbert founded the A. C. Gilbert Company. The company, guided by Gilbert, created toys related to […]

Continue Reading about Activity Sets: Playing with Glass, Foil, Plastic, and Goop Published on:
March 27, 2020

Museums, schools, gyms, and malls are closed. Basketball games, poetry readings, dance recitals, and playdates are canceled. As a global pandemic casts a shadow over our daily lives, so many of the places that we see as playgrounds—including The Strong itself—are temporarily closed. But, as I was reminded this past week, play persists. A box of sidewalk chalk showed me firsthand the important role of play, and the ways in which it connects us with each other, during […]

Continue Reading about Playing with Sidewalk Chalk Brings Us Together While We’re Apart Published on:
March 24, 2020