The ironic thing about starting this blog (to protect and promote and imaginative play in our way-too-busy, consumer-driven, media-filled world) is that my life has gotten busier and more media-filled. It has been energizing, too, no doubt. The fact that we’ve gotten great feedback helps fuel me to continue the work. However, today I [...]
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Earlier this week on American Public Media’s Marketplace, I heard an excellent interview with James Gustave Speth, Dean of Forestry and Environmental Studies at Yale University. The ideas presented in the interview, Taking Stock: Rethinking Consumerism, support many of the concepts I have been writing about in Empowered by Play. Speth talks about over-consumption and [...] Today was a great day for water play. My sons and their cousin gallivanted in the sprinkler…chasing, laughing and playing. They were also discovering. They experimented with water pressure and with blocking holes – discovering ways to make the water flow higher and lower at their command. Later in the day, as the boys helped me [...] Nostalgia is a funny thing…a wistful longing for innocent days gone by. In 2009, though, there is a new breed of nostalgia. The youngest generation of parents were raised in a world with hundreds of channels on cable TV, remote controls galore and the explosion of media-linked toys that came with the deregulation of children’s [...] About a year ago, when we moved from Boston to New York, we decided not to hook up the cable television. Before we moved, with babies in the house, we’d already cut back on TV watching. We always tried to mute all the commercials, but even with that my 3 year old sons could tell [...] Many of my childhood memories involve playing outside: crunching and jumping through leaves in fall, sledding and making snowmen in winter, hunting for 4 leaf-clovers in spring and curling dandelion stems in summer. (Just peel the dandelion stems into strips, drop them in water, and watch how they curl into incredible curly-cues. Very fun.) Time [...] When I was a little girl our family used to gather in the playroom on Friday nights for our much-loved BINGO night. I remember taking turns being the caller and learning the BINGO lingo (did you know that “in waiting” means you are just one space away from BINGO?) and lots of laughing. It [...] “My daughter’s friend is obsessed with Hannah Montana. What can I do?” asked a mom. She was looking for advice on ways to manage her six-year-old daughter’s friendship in a way that supported her own values. The “Tween Scene” is hitting kids younger and younger, and it is no joke. First off all, there isn’t a [...] This weekend I drove by a house with a group of about ten teenagers hanging outside. It was a beautiful sunny day and they were sprawled about the driveway. Some were just relaxing while others were busily making elaborate chalk drawings all over the driveway and sidewalk. The scene made me smile. It is not [...] Why is play so important? It is the cornerstone of what makes us happy, healthy and creative people. Research has shown this over and over again. Problem solving, communicating, creating, negotiating – it all comes through during play. It’s true for children, and it is true for grown ups as well. For more information, check out [...] |
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