October is Children's Month

Yes, October has been declared as National Children's Month, but this post is actually about the children, and the games that we played when we were kids, and in connection with this, how we can teach these games to our children.

Last September, our department's Family Day was held in a beach resort here in the city. Everyone had fun, and part of the activities was the traditional Pinoy games (Larong Pinoy) we once played as kids. As a child many years back, I remember playing some of the games like Luksong Tinik, Siyatong, Sipa, Patintero, Tumba Preso and many others. I remember playing Tumba Preso with my childhood friends who were also my neighbors. And I also played Siyatong. But what was my favorite was Step-No, and I was really one of the kids who enjoyed playing that.

Now, with the existence of modern technology in the name of computers and game consoles, our children no longer go out in the sun and play. What I have noticed with my kids is that they enjoy more of playing FB apps rather than spending their time out in the sun doing outdoor games. Their only outdoor games is being done with a request to do it in the sand, meaning on a picnic in the beach or the pool.

Well, although these are also good games as we can always check on our kids easily as they are just indoor games, as a parent, I still would rather that my kids grow up to know the traditional games that we once played. These traditional Pinoy games are more physical; we run, practice active minds in catching the siyatong stick, carefully safekeeping the home base in tumbang preso, and jumping as high as we possibly can in luksong tinik.

The children now have different ways of entertainment and games, they prefer to play indoors but little do they know that these traditional Pinoy games are far better than wasting too much time in front of the computer or TV.

Now, how can one introduce these traditional Pinoy games to children? Start by playing these games in your own backyard or lawns. You can start with your family members. Teach them on what strategies there is to guard the homebase, and what you can do to get more points in siyatong. These games are more physical so you can sweat out and enjoy more bonding time outside the comforts of your home. You can also use strategic thinking on how you can evade guards in patintero and many other agility-needed actions in these outdoor games.

It is Children's Month, and I am hoping that we teach our children the basic games we once played during our childhood. True, this generation now is all about computers, and the Internet, but we can also enjoy with our children if we teach them the games we played while we were young. Besides, wouldn't it be an enjoyable time guarding your home base with your children competing against you?

You see, our pictures speak of how fun it was when we played these games. We even recalled having to cheat because our heights do not allow us to jump as high as we could, or we recalled having to trick the guards keeping the home base. Now, that's what we call strategy, but seriously, fun won't be fun without all these childhood memories.

I hope we can share this to our children. It's children's month, maybe could be teach them all these and be children once more and not just let them study and make them learn how to get rich.

Playing games is not about age, it is about being young at heart and having the kind of fun that you want.