Old games made new

Traditional children’s play has now evolved to include new rhymes and chants plus fancy hand-finger actions
theSun,Tue, 21 Jul 2009

I WAS pleased to find out recently that some games I used to play with my school friends are still being played by schoolchildren these days, albeit with new names and rules.

Games like ‘tag’ and ‘rock, paper, scissors’ have evolved to include new procedures and fancy hand and finger actions, along with new chants and rhymes.

My friends and I referred to ‘tag’ as ‘catching’ then. Now, my daughter and her friends call it ‘ice and water’.

As for ‘rock, paper, scissors’, we simply said “one, two, juice” before we showed our choice and won by points those days.

Now, I link pinkies with my daughter and sing “see, see, America, America ...”, and make slapping actions in the air to ‘slap’ the loser while she turns her cheek sideways in jest when ‘slapped’.

No matter how silly some of these traditional games may sound with their nonsensical rhymes, they have been passed on from generation to generation and do provide some benefits other than just plain old fun.

In the article The Benefits of Play: Traditional Outdoor Games found in a UK-based website, My Child, it said that “the jeers, taunts, calls, chants, mock speeches, humorous narratives, rhymes, backwards and nonsense verses in children’s lore give plenty of opportunity to ­practise phonology, lexis, ­grammar, syntax and semantics without the children being aware”.

I find that these games also bridge the gap between the young and old. Compared to modern-day technology-based games that use handheld consoles, the television or computer, these ‘old’ games do not require batteries, electricity or technology know-how which the older generation may find some difficulty in following.

There are games that you play indoors and others outdoors, in small groups and larger groups, using little or basic materials, and sometimes none at all. This makes these games easily accessible and affordable to all.

Some do not have set limitations to the rules or number of people playing, and can easily be modified according to one’s creativity.

I remember tying a bunch of frangipani flowers with a rubber band to substitute for the actual toy made of chicken feathers attached to a small circular, flat rubber base. We kicked and tried to keep it in the air for as long as we could with the inner side of our foot.

We strung lots of rubber bands together into a long braid and used it as a skipping rope, as well as the contraption for the game zero-point.

Then, there were, of course, hopscotch, hantu galah, five stones and card games like Snap and Old Maid. We played rounders using rolled-up newspaper and a small rubber or tennis ball.

These games are simple yet effective in helping to develop ­children socially, mentally, and physically. They help children ­de-stress, practise teamwork, negotiate, strategise, exercise and improve their physical coordination.

Some games, like congkak, help sharpen their memory and ­mathematical skills.

And like in any game, be it ­modern or traditional, there will always be winners and losers. Children learn to play by the rules, respect their playmates and also the end result of the game.

They learn that to have fun, they must not get upset if they lose or gloat when they win.