This Saturday, September 25, is World Wide Day of Play, an annual event designed to encourage kids and parents to turn off the television and play, especially outdoors. We take play seriously at ESI Design and it is integral to many of our most successful interactive experiences.

To commemorate this day and give a shout out to the importance of play in learning and development we asked ESIers what kind of play they engaged in as kids and if they engage in any similar activities as adults.

Kris liked to create villages out of sticks, stones, grasses and mud.

Erica played in the woods: jumping through creeks and riverbeds, ‘fishing’ for tadpoles and frogs, lumping up piles of sticks and branches to make enclosures.

Greg liked to construct forts, structures, shelters and hideaways.

And Bryan created elaborate Smurf lands that spanned furniture surfaces, including the Smurfs themselves, their mushroom houses, water wells and wheelbarrows.

Two themes dominated – building structures (usually forts) and exploring nature as children. And as adults? Unscripted days where Kris can be in nature are his favorite moments. Erica still seeks out adventure and gets anxious if she doesn’t get outdoors to play. Greg enjoys simulation style games – things that build cities and civilizations. As for Bryan, his Smurf land creation also translates to his current creative expression – he now makes worlds with other people and imagines what happens in them, which he alternately calls “art,” “performance” or “theatre.”

The primary purpose of Day of Play is to encourage kids to enjoy a healthy lifestyle and active play and to turn off the TV, shut down the computer or put down that cell phone – a noble cause indeed. I’d like to think there is a larger message – never stop playing, exploring and creating.