Long Listening · Section 7

Childhood Activities

At the time of recording this, it's the very end of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere,

Level: A2 · 270 sentences

Transcript

At the time of recording this,
it's the very end of summer here in the Northern Hemisphere,
and so autumn is just around the corner.
In English, when we say that something is just around the corner,
we're saying that it's about to appear or it's about to happen.
It's gonna happen very soon.
So, fall is just around the corner
and a lot of people are really happy
about this because a lot of people here like this season.
They like autumn.
They like to see the colors changing.
They like the seasonal food.
There are a lot of different types of food
that people start to eat during autumn
that they don't eat during the spring or summer.
And so a lot of people like this season.
One fun thing about this season
is that there are a lot of activities for children For example,
pumpkin patches, these places where they sell pumpkins,
but they also have a lot of activities for kids.
And me and my family, we're planning on going to a couple pumpkin patches this season.
And I think that I'll do an episode on pumpkin patches.
So you'll get to hear about that, hopefully.
And I was thinking about this topic of fun activities for children
because I was thinking about pumpkin patches
and about different things like that.
And I decided that I wanted to do an episode
about some of my favorite activities
that I did when I was a kid.
So my childhood activities specifically things
that I did outdoors, things that I did outside.
I thought it would be fun to look back and remember
my childhood and some of my favorite things that I did outside.
So I hope that this will be an interesting episode for you today.
Alright, let's talk about some of my favorite childhood activities that I did.
Some of my favorite things that I did outdoors.
Because I did some things indoors as well.
I had some fun activities that I did inside.
But I want to focus on the outdoor activities today.
So the first one that I want to talk about is building a tree house.
So you've probably seen this in movies
or TV shows before where the kids build
some type of house in their backyard, maybe in a big tree.
And this is something that is a pretty classic tradition here in the US.
People like tree houses.
This is a fun thing for kids.
However, I built a tree house
that was a little bit different from what you're probably imagining.
We didn't build a house that was a closed box.
like you see in the movies usually,
we built a tree house where we just had these different platforms
on different branches of the tree.
A platform is just a flat space,
and in this case, a space where you can stand on.
So my friend and I we built this treehouse
that had many different platforms at different levels and on different branches
and we would have to climb to the different platforms
using these steps that we also built.
We used wood and nailed the wood into the tree
to build steps that we could step on.
By the way, when we say that you nail something,
we're saying that you use a nail, this sharp little tool,
and you use that and you hit it into the object.
You nail it.
So we nailed these wooden steps into the tree trunk.
so that we could climb the tree
to get to the different platforms.
I know that this might be a little difficult to visualize,
but that's probably the best way that I can describe it.
And building this treehouse was really fun.
I think we had more fun building the treehouse
than we did playing in the treehouse.
So it was really fun to construct this.
And we were pretty young when we built this.
I think I was like 10 years old, maybe.
So we were young.
It was probably a little dangerous, but we did it anyway.
And this was the first time
that I really used a hammer and nails on my own.
So I learned how to hammer things when I built this treehouse.
And it was a great place to play
and to use our imagination to create games
and things like that in this treehouse.
And in general, I always really liked climbing trees as a kid.
That was always something that I enjoyed.
And so this was a perfect project for me
because I got the chance to climb this tree
and also build something, use my imagination, play, etc.
So that was one of my favorite activities as a kid.
Another childhood activity that I wanted to mention
is that I actually collected bugs for a time.
The word bug just means insect, right?
So I actually collected bugs during a brief time in my life.
Now, when I look back on this, it seems kind of gross to me.
The word gross just means disgusting.
So it seems kind of gross
when I think back to all the bugs that I collected.
I remember that in particular, I collected caterpillars,
you know, these things that turn into butterflies, right?
So I collected caterpillars and I remember putting them in a container
and I tried to create a good environment for them in this container.
I put leaves and sticks and things like that inside.
and i fed them fruit i remember feeding them cantaloupe actually
if you don't know what a cantaloupe is this is that type
of melon that's orange on the inside that's cantaloupe
so i remember feeding them cantaloupe and cleaning the container
and i don't know why i was so interested
But for some reason, I like to collect them
and watch them interact with each other in this container.
And I also remember collecting some beetles.
I remember doing that.
I don't remember all of the other specific bugs
that I collected, but I just remember
that I liked to watch them interact with each other.
I would combine...
some different bugs together and watch
what they did to see if they would get along
or if they would fight or whatever.
By the way, the phrasal verb get along means that you
are in harmony with another person or another animal.
So it means that you don't fight with each other.
You get along.
So I think that I liked to experiment a little bit
and see if these bugs would get along with each other.
So that's another activity that I did as a kid.
And another one was making paper airplanes.
So I loved making paper airplanes as a kid,
especially because I loved trying to find the different combinations of folds
that would result in the best airplane.
I don't know if you have much experience making paper airplanes,
but of course it really matters how you fold the paper.
So if you fold the paper in certain ways...
and you follow a certain design,
you can make a pretty impressive airplane, actually.
Some airplanes that we made actually
stayed in the air for quite a while.
And I remember that we had one design in particular
that was the best one.
So my neighbor and I found this perfect design
that we would recreate time and time again
and create these airplanes and try to make them fly
as high and as long as possible.
And so it was a very intricate design.
The word intricate means that something is very detailed.
And so this was an intricate design.
I still remember how to make this paper airplane even now as an adult.
That's how many times I made it.
I made it so many times
that I still have that muscle memory.
I still remember exactly how to make this airplane.
So we found that perfect design
and we always try to improve it or find an even better
So we found some other combinations of folds
that worked pretty well, but we never ended up beating
that one really good design that we found.
But it was really fun to do that and to experiment with different types of designs.
I really like that.
I like experimenting with different options
and trying to create different designs with things like that.
That's something that I enjoy and I really enjoyed it as a kid.
So that was another good activity that I had.
And another one was something that we called cardboarding.
So we would slide down this big hill on pieces of cardboard.
Cardboard is that material that is used to package items,
to transport them or ship them to another place.
By the way, when we say shipping,
when we say that an item ships,
we're saying that it is sent from one place to another.
So Cardboard is that material that's used to ship
items, to package them and ship them.
So we would cut big pieces of cardboard
from these different boxes and we would sit on them
and then slide down this big hill that was behind my house.
So this was something that my friend came up with.
By the way, when we say that you come up with something,
we're saying that you think of an idea.
So this is something that he came up with and I
joined in and we had a lot of fun doing this.
It didn't always work really well
because sometimes the grass is grew in a way
that didn't allow us to slide very well.
So we had to work around
that and do our best to be able to make
it to the bottom of the hill on this cardboard.
But it was actually a little bit dangerous
because we weren't able to stop very well.
You don't really have...
break system with this type of cardboard obviously
so if we made it to the bottom of the hill
on the cardboard sometimes we wouldn't be able to stop well
and we would kind of fall off of it
and maybe it would hurt a little bit
or we might run into something and We would crash, right?
So it was a little bit dangerous.
And I think there were a few times when I got hurt,
but nothing serious, just minor things.
But that was an activity that was a fun one
in the sense that we created it
and it wasn't something that other people really did.
We didn't learn about it from anyone else.
My friend just created it.
He had this idea and we just did it.
And we were the only ones
that we knew who did this type of activity.
So that was pretty cool.
It was born out of a kid's imagination, right?
It was just something that we decided to do.
because it sounded fun and we had the material
and we made it work.
We did it until we found the perfect way to do it
and then we had fun with it.
I really like when kids come up with interesting
games and activities like that.
I think that's really cool.
And speaking of that, the last activity
that I want to talk about is playing make-believe.
In English, when we say that you make-believe
or you play make-believe, we're saying
that you create situations and games from your imagination.
Things that aren't real, but you imagine them
and then you play this game or you do this activity.
So I played make-believe a lot
when I was around the age of six
or seven, around that age.
I remember playing with my old neighbor in my old house,
my first house, and I remember
inventing different games together where we would have to make-believe
we had to pretend and imagine these different situations.
By the way, in this context,
the word pretend means that you imagine something
that isn't real, but you act like it's real.
Okay, so for example, if I pretend that I'm a superhero,
this means that I'm acting and imagining that I'm a superhero.
even though it's not real, right?
So I remember pretending and coming up with all of these different scenarios with my neighbor.
And we just went through these whole storylines
and pretended that we were different characters doing different things.
And it was tons of fun.
I remember that our favorite thing to pretend
was that we were on a big boat.
We called it the boat game.
And we pretended that we were these sailors on this big boat
and we were navigating the open seas
and we encountered all of these different complications and problems.
I don't know where we got that idea from.
I have no idea how we started that, but I just remember
that we loved playing this boat game and using our imagination.
So I really like that type of activity, that make-believe
type of activity, because I think it's really good for kids.
It helps kids use their imagination and not just rely on...
Being given the stimulation from a screen
or from something else, kids have to think of things
on their own and create things from nothing.
I really like that.
And I think it's also beneficial in the sense
that it helps kids become more social and right?
You have to work with your friends
and you have to agree with each other
and get along with each other
while you're imagining these situations and playing in this context.
And I think it also helps kids
become a little more independent and it helps them
begin to play on their own
and not just need their parents to play with them for example so I think
that there are a lot of good benefits for kids
to play make-believe I really like that and I'm interested to see
when my son will start to play make-believe
and create scenarios like that that are imaginary
and I'm looking forward to that stage in his life.
I think that will be fun.